Hunted
by Kromatick
Summary: Sequel to my first story 'Mechro'. Gaige meets a new friend as she embarks on a journey across Pandora, in the hopes of finding a way off the planet. But, she can't stay hidden forever, and her friend's past is coming crashing down on him.
1. Arrival

**A/N: And I'm back! I honestly couldn't wait to start writing the sequel, so here it is. The story should be a lot better considering that I can make up my own storyline, and not follow Borderlands 2's.**

**The chapters may be longer this time around, i'll have to see. I will also reply to reviews in the Author's Note at the beginning of each chapter, so please review! :)**

**Hope you enjoy!**

***EDIT*: One more thing, I've said this before, please, for the purpose of story, forget about most of the game mechanics.**

* * *

Koen sat in the corner of his trans-planetary shuttle, speaking into an ECHO device.

"To whoever finds this, you'll have the pleasure of knowing how I ended up on this dump of a planet. Let me start from the very start," He said.

"My name is Koen, I am 18 years old, and I live... no, lived on the planet of Eden-6. You see, the corrupt idiots that we call the police threw me off the planet for... sorta... killing someone. Somebody... important, apparently. But, still, who does that?! Who throws an 18 year old off a planet? They could have killed me right there but noooo, they're sending me to some border planet called Pandora. I've heard of this place before, it's all everyone's been talking about these last few weeks, I don't know why though. Apparently it's a dry, dusty pisshole full of psychotic bandits. People come to this planet to look for treasure and stuff, but most don't last a day, so I guess I'd be lucky to find a sane person here."

"Before they locked me in this damn shuttle, I grabbed the three things that never leave my sigh: my trusty Maliwan crossbow, my quiver of elemental arrows, and my backpack. An officer took one look at what I was bringing and he told me I was going to need it where I was going."

He was running out of things to say, so he ended the recording there. He pressed stop on the device and tossed it across the shuttle, let out a long sigh and looked up at the roof.

"I can't believe this is happening."

* * *

Koen clambered out his shuttle and into bright sunlight. The heat hit him instantly as he stepped out. He wasn't exactly wearing the right clothes. He wore dark combat trousers, a t-shirt, a wrecked green hoodie, a white bandana that went around his shoulders, and black sneakers. He took a quick look around, he appeared to be in a small desert. There were hills of sand and mountains around the place.

"Shit," He muttered.

He decided to stick around where his shuttle had landed, it provided good shelter. He needed a better vantage point to get a better look at his surroundings, so he left his backpack, crossbow and arrows on the ground and began to climb a tall, nearby rock. The heat made it hard work, but he was in good shape and soon reached the top. He stood up on top of the rock and looked around, putting his hand over his forehead to block the sun. He saw some weird dog-looking animals running around. _Probably best to avoid them_, he thought to himself.

All of a sudden, he heard rapid gunfire break out behind him. It was far away, but not far enough. Squinting, he could make out six figures in the distance. He slid down the rock and ran to back to his shelter, towards the gunfire and the figures. He picked up his crossbow and quiver as he ran, swinging the quiver on to his back and quickly loading an explosive arrow into the crossbow. He pulled up his hood and continued running.

As he ran, the gunfire became louder and louder. He reached a small sand hill, it sounded like the shots were coming from just over the other side of it. He bent low and walked slowly to the top of the hill and lay on top. He could only see 4 people now, 3 men stood close together, shooting at a small hooded figure, who was firing back. Koen could barely see anything but silhouettes against the dazzling sun. The bullets that did hit the hooded figure just caused a small electric arc to appear on impact, doing no visible damage, yet she jolted with each bullet that hit her. 2 dead bodies lay next to the 3 men. One of the men took a bullet to the face and slumped to the ground. As he hit the ground, there was a bright, white flash and suddenly there was a hulking robot hovering next to the hooded figure, armed with an array of various spikes and giant claws for hands. The figure had its left arm raised, a shadow against the sunlight. A bright orange laser shot out of a small box which, Koen assumed, counted for the robot's head. The laser hit one of the two remaining men and he instantly burst into flames, he flailed around on the ground for a few seconds before dying. The last man turned to run, but was shot in the head before he could take the first step.

"Haha! Nice one DT!" said a feminine voice. The voice sounded like that of a teenage girl's. Then Koen noticed something else about the girl: she had a mechanical arm, her left arm, the same one she had used to summon the robot. He couldn't believe it, a fully working metal arm.

Then, the girl and the robot turned and looked at Koen, the hood still obscuring most of her face.

"Oh, fuck that," Koen panicked as he stood up to run.

He took off as fast as he could. He heard a loud whirring noise follow him, and something smacked into him hard, knocking him to the ground. His crossbow flew out of his hand and landed next to him. He rolled on to his back and looked up into the barrel of a revolver, held by the girl, her deadly robot by her side. She pulled her hood down to reveal a red head of hair, with two ponytails jutting out of either side. She had wide, green eyes and a small plaster across her right cheek. _Damn she's hot, _Koen thought to himself, _she would be even hotter if she wasn't trying to kill me!_

"Well, well, well, what do we have here," She smiled down at him.

Koen glanced towards his crossbow, which was just out of his reach.

"Don't even think about it," she said sternly, "I'll kill you before you can even touch it."

Koen looked at her metallic arm and thought. He wasn't scared of her, it was the robot he had to worry about. He saw how the girl had controlled the robot with the robotic arm and he wondered if he could damage it in some way, would the robot disappear? He decided to take a chance. The girl stood over him, the gun still aimed at his head.

As quick as lightning, he threw his arm back and grabbed the first arrow he could from his quiver. He then thrust the arrow forward towards the girl's mechanical arm. The second the tip of the arrow touched the arm, there was a small electric explosion, he had picked the right arrow it seems, and the girl stumbled backwards. Koen looked quickly at where the robot was a few seconds ago and he didn't see it, so he figured it was safe. While the girl was stunned, he quickly leg sweeped her and was standing up before she hit the ground. Her revolver flew out of her grasp. He picked up his crossbow and aimed at the girl's face. Koen stood on her metal arm to keep her pinned to the ground. The look of confidence on her face from a few moments ago was replaced by a look of genuine fear. Small electric sparks appeared all around her, it looked like the electrical explosion had disabled the shield.

"Make one move," Koen said menacingly, "And I'll blow your brains out."

"Woah, woah, please don't kill me!" she squealed. Koen kept his crossbow ready, he wasn't taking any chances. He didn't plan on killing her, but he couldn't just let her go.

"Uh, I-I can get you off this planet!" she tried. That got Koen's attention.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, still keeping an aggressive face and tone of voice. "How?"

"There's a-a Hyperion launch facility very far away from here, I was on my way there, but it's dangerous to travel alone!" she panicked.

Koen considered his options, then slowly lowered his crossbow. He slung it over his back, next to his quiver, and put his hand out to help the girl up.

"Don't make me regret this," He warned and gave her a quick smile.

He pulled her to her feet as she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for... y'know... not killing me," She grinned, delighted just to be alive. "The name's Gaige by the way."

"Koen," He said, looking up at the sky. It was dusk. "It's getting dark I think, I came here in a trans-planetary shuttle and it's still over there," he gestured with his thumb, "I've been using it as shelter. Wanna stay with me for a while?"

"Sure!" she beamed, and they began the short walk back to the shuttle together. Koen took a long look at her. She wore a sleeveless denim jacket with a hood and a red t-shirt with a skull on it underneath. She also wore a red skirt with ripped, black and white striped leggings and blue sneakers. Her whole appearance reminded Koen of a school girl, which she probably was.

"So Koen, why'd you end up here?" Gaige asked.

Koen was tired and didn't feel like answering questions, so he replied with: "I'll tell you later."

"Kay then, but will you at least tell me where you got that badass crossbow?" she continued.

"It was my Dad's, had it with me for years now and I still haven't found anything it can't kill," Koen replied. "You wanna explain that robot that nearly killed me? Or maybe the metal arm? Wait, I didn't damage it too badly did I?"

"No, you just short-circuited the battery. If you did damage it badly, I would kill you right now," She said with a smile and a happy tone of voice, before breaking into a cute, snorting laugh.

Koen couldn't help but smile, she was funny, and he was happy to have someone that would accompany him on the journey ahead. Although, as they walked back towards the shuttle, Koen couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't killed her the first chance he got. He had killed people before, why did he hesitate then?


	2. Trading Stories

**A/N: And here I am again with chapter 2. I hope you guys are enjoying reading this story as much as I am writing it. :)  
By the way, as it's mentioned in this chapter, Gaige is 16 for this story. I know the wiki says she's 18, but I prefer to think of her as 16, so I'm going with that.**

**Terrorbyte TC: I thought about that, but I really wanted to get the story moving right from the first chapter. Koen's past will be revealed gradually throughout the story.**

**Randomness1996: If any of the DLCs prove relevant to the story in some way, I will add them, if not, I might just reference them as some point. I can't say anything for the "old" characters.**

* * *

Koen and Gaige stepped into the shuttle. The inside was square in shape, and had 6 seats running along each side. The room was about three by two and a half metres, with a roof that barely went over Koen's head. Gaige shut the door behind her as she entered.

"This is exactly like the shuttle I came here on," Gaige remarked.

Koen leaned his crossbow and quiver in a corner, threw his backpack on the floor and collapsed onto the row of seats, his face pressed into the leather.

"Look, Gaige," he said with a muffled voice, "We both have loads of questions and stuff, but I'm really tired right now. It's been a long day."

"Fine," she said, as she sat down on the opposite row of seats, "Though I warn you, nights take forever here. I remember when I first came here and I could only sleep for like a few hours, then I'd wake up and I'd be all 'What the hell?' because it would still be dark outside and..." she stopped herself when she realised that Koen was already fast asleep. She was shocked at how fast he could fall asleep.

"Oh, you're asleep then, that's cool, I guess I'll... sleep too," she lay across the row of seats, trying to get comfortable. She twisted and turned, even falling off the seats a few times, until she finally closed her eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

Koen woke up from a good nights sleep, he considered himself lucky, he didn't get them very often. He was awake but he kept his eyes closed, savouring the rest. Then, he heard Gaige talking in a hushed voice.

"So he's got this really cool crossbow that shoots like, elemental arrows and stuff, I sorta played with it while he was asleep, I don't think he'd mind. Right now, we're in the shuttle that he came here in, we decided to sleep here for the night. It sure as hell beats the rocky ground of Pandora, I haven't had a sleep like that in a while now. Speaking of sleep, Koen is still asleep! I can't believe it, he slept more than me and I'm used to nights on Pandora, although I still don't sleep as much as other people."

It sounded like she was talking to herself. Koen stifled a laugh.

"Anyway, I guess I'm gonna stay with him for a while, maybe-"

"You know," Koen said as he turned over to face her, "They say talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity."

Gaige's eyes widened and her face went red. She was holding an ECHO device, identical to the one that Koen had used the day before.

"Oh, I-uh," she stammered and hit a button on the device.

Koen laughed as he sat up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"How long was I asleep?" He asked.

"19 hours," Gaige replied. "It should be morning soon."

Koen raised an eyebrow. He'd never slept that long in his life, although it was nearly two days since he slept last. "19 hours... huh. Wait, did you say it's not even morning?" he asked incredulously.

"Yup, 90-hour days."

Koen wanted to see for himself. He stood up, threw open the door and stepped out into the fresh air. He saw that the tip of the sun was barely visible above the horizon.

"Awwww," He groaned as he went back into the shuttle and shut the door. He flopped down into one of the seats.

"So, let's trade stories," Gaige smiled.

"Fair enough," Koen agreed, "You go first."

"Okay then," she said and began her story.

She told Koen about everything that had led her to Pandora, the Eden-5 Youth Science Fair, project DT, some girl named Marcie who Gaige constantly referred to as 'That bitch', what happened on the night of the science fair, and her escape to Pandora. When she was done, she sat back and waited for Koen's response.

"Of all the planets you could have gone to, you picked here?" he asked.

"There's pretty much no law here, and nobody would follow me to this craphole, so I thought, why not?" she shrugged. "Anyway, enough about me, what about you, why are you here."

Koen picked up the ECHO device he had used yesterday and handed it to her.

"Play it."

Gaige pressed the play button and listened. When the message had finished, she set the device down and laughed.

"Guess we're both here for the same thing then." She grinned.

"Yeah," Koen sighed, "Me and my friend worked as assassins on Eden-6, killing people for whoever offered us money. Assassinating people was pretty much what kept me and him alive. See, me and him had pretty much nothing but the weapons we carried, so we thought we'd put them to good use. We worked this way for 2 years, without ever getting caught, until we fucked up big time."

"What about your parents? How come you weren't living with them?" Gaige asked.

Koen looked away from her and sighed, he hated when people asked him that question. "Dead," he muttered, "Both of them."

Gaige desperately tried to change the topic. "Um, so uh, who-who'd you kill?"

"Some bastard who worked for Hyperion, apparently he was extremely high up, so he had a bit more protection than I anticipated. I forget his name though..." Koen clicked his fingers as he tried to remember, "It was... oh yeah, Holloway, something Holloway, I can't really remem-"

Gaige shot out of her seat like a rocket and wrapped her arms around Koen, ginning crazily.

"HahahaHAAH! Yes!" she laughed. "Koen, you are AWESOME!"

"Uh, okay then, if you say so," he chuckled, a bit confused by the whole event.

Gaige continued to hug him for a few more seconds.

"Uh, Gaige, you can let go now."

She quickly pulled away from him.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly, "It's just that, Mr. Holloway is the whole reason I'm here, he put a massive bounty on my head, 820 billion dollars."

Koen's eyes bulged when he heard the sum.

"But now that he's dead, I can go home free! Thank you Koen! Wait, I probably shouldn't be laughing but..."

"If only you knew what it took," Koen muttered to himself, quiet enough so that Gaige couldn't hear.

* * *

They waited a while longer before exiting the shuttle and stepping out into a bright morning. Koen brought all of his gear with him, he was always ready for anything.

"Right, we gotta get you a shield, don't want you dying on me now," Gaige said with a smile.

The two began to walk in the direction of the spot where they had had their fight. When they reached the spot, Koen saw that the five bandit corpses were still lying on the ground.

_"Of course they were still there, it's not like they're going anywhere any time soon," he thought._

Gaige walked over to one of the bodies, crouched down next to it, and pulled a white object away from it. She stood up and faced Koen, turning the object around in her hands.

"Ever used a shield before?" she asked.

"No," Koen replied, "I mean, I've heard of them, but I've never seen anyone use them on Eden-6."

Gaige tossed the object to him. He caught it and inspected it. It was white, with a disc shape and a blue hexagon indented into the middle.

"Put it on your belt and you should be good to go," Gaige told him.

He hooked the shield on to the leather belt around his waist. He didn't notice anything different.

"Uh, did it do anything?" Koen frowned.

"Yup, if you ever get shot at, the shield should absorb almost all of the damage, in theory," Gaige explained.

"In theory?"

"Well... yeah, you see, there was this big EMP blast a while ago that covered all of Pandora, and it temporarily shut down all of the shields, I guess they never fully recovered."

Suddenly, they heard a loud banging noise coming from a few metres away. They both spun around simultaneously to see a man with no shirt on, wearing brown trousers and a strange mask, smacking the side of the shuttle with what looked to be a tomahawk.

"Come out! I know you're in there!" the man called.

"Psycho, crazy bastard," Gaige sighed quietly, "I got him,"

She began to walk forward, pulling out a revolver. Koen put his arm out and stopped her. He loaded a random arrow into his crossbow.

"Hold on, I got this," Koen whispered, before raising his voice. "Hey, dickhead!" he shouted.

The psycho turned around, and as soon as he saw Koen, lobbed the tomahawk at him. Koen saw this coming and dodged with ease, before aiming at the psycho and pulling the trigger. The arrow flew through the air and nailed its target almost instantly. Turns out he'd picked a fire arrow. The bandit burst into flames, he flailed his arms around crazily, desperately trying to extinguish the fire. After a few more seconds of screaming, the bandit fell backwards and went still, his corpse still burning.

Koen put his crossbow on his back and turned around to face Gaige, his arms held out wide.

"Am I great or what?" he asked, and then they both burst out laughing.

* * *

_Despite Handsome Jack's death, and the victory over Hyperion, that day had been one of the quietest Sanctuary had ever seen._

_After Gaige's funeral, the population of Sanctuary returned to the town, with nothing but a hollow victory to keep them motivated. This is how it was when Roland died, and now they were back in the same position, minus a certain engineering genius. Maya wondered if things would ever be the same again, especially for Axton, who, on that day, was the quietest he had ever been in the long time she had known him._

* * *

_Scooter returned to Sanctuary and went straight to his garage. He didn't feel like working on anything new, not today. He walked over to his workbench and began messing with whatever random tools were lying about. After a few minutes of mindlessly playing with his equipment, he came across a wrench and picked it up. He recognised it instantly as the one Gaige had given him before she left for her last mission. His own words flooded his head._

_"You-you come back alive, you hear?"_

_He was overcome with sadness for a few seconds, until suddenly, he was filled with anger. He slammed Gaige's wrench down on the tabletop, grabbed a hammer that was lying on the table and launched it across the room._

_"GODDAMMIT!" He shouted._

* * *

_Zer0 walked through the center of Sanctuary, and passed at the 'This Just In' stand that he had seen a million times before. This time though, he glanced over at it and did a double take. He walked over and saw that two wanted posters of Gaige were still pinned to each side. He reached over, ripped each one down and crumpled them up._

_"Hey, man, what the hell?!" The clerk protested. "Get away from my shop you-"_

_The man leaned forwards to protect his other wanted posters, and as he did, Zero punched him full force in the face. There was a loud crack as the man collapsed backwards into the booth. Zer0 walked away, his work here was done._

* * *

_Maya sat in a chair in the Crimson Raider's HQ, chewing her fingernails and staring at nothing in particular. She stayed like this for a good fifteen minutes until the front door opened and Lilith walked in, a concerned look on her face. She picked up a chair, placed it directly opposite Maya and sat down._

_"You guys alright?" Lilith asked._

_Maya didn't respond._

_"You know, I didn't really get to know Gaige that well, but I wish I had, she seemed like a great kid-"_

_"Don't call her a kid," Maya interrupted her, "She hated that."_

_Lilith sighed, "Look, it's going to be bad for a while, like it was with Roland, but it will get better, trust me."_

_Maya paused for a few seconds before replying. "Lilith, she was sixteen," She said, and she stood up out of her seat and walked upstairs, leaving Lilith sitting in her chair, thinking about what Maya had said._

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review and tell me what you think. If you like it, tell me so by following and maybe even favouriting, thanks again!**


	3. Walking

**A/N: For some reason, I really struggled with this chapter. It took me way longer than it should have. It's probably down to the fact that my exams have just started and I'm focusing on them a bit. I also had quite a lack of motivation to write this week, and I think it is evident in this chapter. Hope you enjoy anyway.**

**TechKnightEmperor: Thanks! Means a lot! :)**

**Terrorbyte TC: Thank you, humour is definitely one of the main themes i'm going for in this story.**

**Loki Tricks: Glad you're happy for a sequel! :)**

**MEleeSmasher: Haha thanks, I'll try my best!**

* * *

"So, this shield should protect me from all gunfire?" Koen asked Gaige.

"Yeah, but the shields capacity drains with each absorbed shot, so you can't just stand there sponging bullets forever," she explained.

"If that's the case, how come I broke through your shield so quickly?"

"Like I said, Mr. I-beat-up-teenage-girls, all of the shields are messed up, mine just picked a perfect time to crap out on me."

"How long are you gonna hold that against me?" Koen complained.

"Until forever," Gaige said.

"That's a long time."

"Uh-huh."

"But seriously," said Koen, "Remember yesterday, when you were talking about some Hyperion launch station on this planet?" She had mentioned it briefly when he had his crossbow aimed in her face, so he deliberately left that little detail out.

"Yeah,"

"Well, I hope you don't plan on living in that damn shuttle forever." He continued.

"True," Gaige shrugged, "We should probably get going," She looked around in a circle, taking in her surroundings. "I have established that we need to go south-west, and that south-west is that way," she pointed out the direction that they need to go. Koen looked where she was pointing and saw nothing but more desert landscape, similar to where they were now.

"Oh for-" Koen sighed, "Is this planet just one huge fucking desert?"

"Not at all, the landscape changes eventually," Gaige said.

"How far?"

"Uhh, 30 miles, maybe?"

"30 miles?" he groaned, "Is there any other, preferably faster, way?"

"There used to be," she told him, "You used to be able to materialise cars from these machines called Catch-A-Rides, it was pretty awesome."

"Used to be able to?"

"Yeah, that EMP shut down a buttload of technology on Pandora."

Koen thought about this for a second.

"Wait, then how come you can still materialise that big robot of yours?" he asked.

"Because I'm awesome," Gaige grinned. There was a short pause.

"You have no idea do you?" Koen said.

Gaige's smile dropped. "Nope."

Koen let out a long laugh, which Gaige joined in on.

"Well, let's get going then," said Koen and they began to walk.

"So, tell me about this place, I like to know a bit about my surroundings," he continued.

"Well," Gaige began, "Right now, we're in a place called The Dust, this is like the desert region of Pandora. The launch facility is in a place called the Arid Nexus Badlands, which, you guessed it, is a sort of badlands area. On the way there though, we'll pass through the Highlands, which is like a grassy, hilly place with rivers and waterfalls and stuff. The other area, which we shouldn't have to pass through, is a frozen wasteland, it sucks there, enough said."

Koen nodded slowly in understanding.

"Another question," he said, "Been meaning to ask, what the hell is that?" He pointed up towards the giant H-shaped ship in the sky.

"That's the Hyperion moonbase, which really shouldn't be here."

"Then why is it?"

"Because Hyperion refuses to roll over and die," Gaige muttered.

"And why would it do that? I mean, Hyperion is like, a mega-corporation, right?" Koen asked.

"A mega corporation whos leader is currently lying in a puddle of lava, decapitated."

"Woah, somebody took out Handsome Jack? Do you know who it was?"

Gaige stopped walking and raised her metal arm. Koen saw a familiar flash of white as her killer robot appeared in front of them. He didn't know if the robot was going to attack him or not, so he kept his hand close to his crossbow. Gaige grabbed on to the robot and pulled herself up on top of it. She sat with her legs crossed on top of the robots shoulder, grinning madly. Deathtrap was bigger than Gaige, it had two huge arms with spiky, metal claws on the end of each. It had no legs, it just hovered there, being propelled by a bright blue flame. It's head was a box containing a small, glowing circle.

"Koen, I give to you, the killer of Handsome Jack himself, Deathtrap," she laughed triumphantly.

Koen was amazed by this in so many ways. He struggled to find words to say.

"Wha..."

Gaige patted her lethal protector on the head, before jumping back down on to the ground. She took a dramatic bow in front of Koen.

"Yeah, I know I'm awesome," she shrugged, a smile still on her face.

* * *

They walked through the desert for about an hour, while Gaige told Koen everything that had happened since she arrived on Pandora. She told him about how she'd met up with the other Vault Hunters, how they had 'saved' Angel, how she and Deathtrap, along with the other Vault Hunters, brought Handsome Jack down. She even went on to talk about her own death and revival. Koen paid particular attention to the last part, mainly because of how she was talking. He noticed she was slipping out her usual happy, cheerful tone and into a low, depressed voice. It was as if she was finding sadness in reciting the past.

"So you... died?" Koen asked when she had finished speaking.

"Yes I did," Gaige replied.

"And you didn't try and contact the others at all?"

Gaige bit her lip and remained silent, looking down at her feet as she walked.

"So," he continued, "They all think you're dead-"

"Yes!" she said, raising her voice, "They do! Now can we please stop talking about that?"

Koen was surprised at her sudden outburst, but he kept his mouth shut.

They continued walking for at least another 3 hours. Gaige was silent for most of that time, despite Koen's efforts to start a conversation. After hours of seeing nothing else other than dust, sand, and the occasional rock, something in the distance caught Koen's eye. As they got closer to it, he realised that it was not anything natural. It was a thick, orange, metal pole, with two silver squares jutting out at either side. It looked like some sort of broken machine.

"Gaige," he asked, walking up to the object and putting his hand on it, "What's this?"

"That's a New-U station," she replied.

Ken looked back at her, after the long silence he honestly wasn't expecting a response. "So this is one of those things that brought you back?"

Gaige nodded. "Now come on, let's get going."

"Aww, Gaige, come oonnnn," Koen complained, "We've been walking for hours now and-"

He stopped himself when he saw the group of around eight men slowly walk over a hill of sand and into sight. He saw that they were dressed in pretty much the exact same way as the man they had encountered back at the shuttle. Psychos, Gaige called them. The two sides spotted each other at the same time. Gaige had her back turned to the group of psychos.

"Uhh, Gaige," Koen said quietly, pointing a finger at the psychos.

She turned around and saw the large group of psychos, armed with tomahawks and any other sharp, metal object they could find.

"Look boys!" One of them shouted, "Fresh meat!"

"Well," Gaige smiled, bringing up her metal arm and materialising her robotic guardian, "Let's dance."

She, once again, hopped up on her robot's shoulders, withdrawing that revolver that she seemingly loved so much. Deathtrap quickly hovered over to the nearest psycho and began swiping with his giant metal claws, while Gaige fired off shots like crazy. The majority of the bandits flocked over to Gaige, trying to swarm her and take her down, but three of them came after Koen.

He loaded a random arrow and fired at the nearest pyscho. The arrow hit the pyscho straight in the face and exploded into green acid, showering the unfortunate man. The acid ate through him and he began to dissolve.

The next psycho approached Koen slowly, grasping his tomahawk tight. Koen had no time to reload. Just as the psycho was within striking distance, he raised his tomahawk, ready to bring it down on Koen's head. Just as he was about to swing, Koen dropped his crossbow and grabbed the tomahawk with two hands, pushing it away from him. He felt the psycho trying to push the tomahawk downwards, as it hovered over Koen's head. Koen surprised the psycho with a powerful kick to the stomach, which caused him to release the tomahawk and stumble backwards. Once he was a few feet away from Koen, Koen lobbed the tomahawk. It sailed through the air and buried itself in the psycho's head.

Koen then remembered the third psycho and spun around to face him. Koen was just in time to see a beam of electricity shoot through the air and strike the psycho, electrocuting him. The psycho shook violently for a few seconds as electricity coursed through his body, before collapsing in a heap.

Suddenly, Deathtrap was hovering beside him. Gaige hopped back down to the ground and raised her human arm.

"We are good," she grinned.

Koen laughed, before raising his hand and giving Gaige a high-five.


	4. The Duel

**A/N: So this chapter took way longer than expected. There are probably two reasons for this:**

**1) I was co-authoring the second chapter of 'More Than a Vault Hunter' by Terrorbyte TC, which I highly recommend you go and read.  
2) Christmas**

**Stealpuncher: I will try my best, but that's easily said than done.**

**Terrorbyte TC: Thanks! That'll be the last time I make that mistake.**

**Tera Tyrant Shadic: Yes, Koen is original. :) Also thanks for that review, I wish everybody else had the same mind set as you.**

* * *

Maya sat in an empty booth at Moxxi's, watching Axton. The commando had been sitting at the bar for a few hours now, downing shot after shot of alcohol. He had been doing this a lot recently. The other Vault Hunters knew exactly why. When Maya couldn't take watching him drink any longer, she stood up and began to walk over to him. She walked slowly over to the bar and sat on a stool beside Axton. Moxxi looked up from cleaning a glass and her eyes met Maya's. Moxxi glanced at Axton, then back to Maya. She shook her head as if she was giving Maya a warning, but Maya ignored her.

"Hey Axton," Maya said.

"Hey," Axton grunted in response, showing his disinterest in everything but the glass of alcohol in his hands.

"You've been drinking for about three hours now, don't you think you've had enough?" Maya tried.

Axton didn't reply.

Maya began to get annoyed. The Vault Hunters all shared Axton's reason for being here, yet they didn't spend hours on end in Moxxi's.

"Look, Axton," Maya sighed, "I know you're still upset about... what happened, we all are, but sitting here drinking isn't going to help. No amount of drinking will bring Gaige back."

At that, Axton jumped off his bar stool, pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Maya. Gasps filled the room as Sanctuary citizens watched the scene unfold. Maya slowly got off the bar stool and faced Axton.

"Don't mention her to me," He threatened.

"Why not, Axton?!" Maya screamed back, "The rest of us were as close to her as you were, what makes you so fucking different?! Get over it!"

Maya wondered why Axton was this upset. He seemed to have the same relationship with Gaige as the others did. There was no way he could have loved her, right? Maybe he felt responsible for Gaige's death? Maya had no way of telling.

When Axton didn't reply, Maya decided to risk making a move. Starting off slowly, she walked towards the door. Axton's gun didn't follow her. The commando stood still, his pistol still held up, staring wide-eyed at the spot where Maya stood.

Maya reached the door and stopped. She turned around and looked back at Axton, who was still frozen in place.

"This is not what she would have wanted," she said, before turning back around and walking out the door.

* * *

After checking to make sure there were no more psychos or bandits coming, Koen picked a spot in the sand and sat down, resting his legs. He let out a quick chuckle as Gaige strolled over and flopped onto the ground, getting a face full of sand. She rolled over slowly and sat crossed-legged next to Koen, playing with the sand. He watched her as she grabbed a handful of sand, before letting it sift through her fingers.

Koen shook his head and leaned back, lying flat out on the ground. He didn't notice how tired he was when they were walking, but now that they had stopped, he realised that he could have collapsed at any moment. He looked up to the sky and shut his eyes against the glaring sun. After a few seconds of relaxing, however, he felt a load of sand being dumped on his face. He sat up quickly, spitting out sand and trying to get it out of his eyes. After blinking away most of the sand, he looked over at Gaige. She was pointing at him and laughing, her face going red from laughter.

"What the hell was that for?" Koen asked, annoyed that his rest had been interrupted.

"I dunno," Gaige shrugged, "I got bored."

"Bored," Koen repeated, he liked Gaige, but she could be like an uncontrollable child at times.

"Yup," Gaige smiled, "I wanna go do stuff."

"What do you say we do, we're in the middle of the desert, and if you say walk, I will kill you," Koen replied.

"Good idea!" Gaige grinned, getting noticeably excited, "We'll have a duel, I wanna prove to you that you got lucky last time."

Koen sighed as he considered this. He knew she wouldn't shut up about it until he duelled her. "Fine," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, but first we gotta set up some ground rules," Gaige said, "For example, when you see the shield deplete, stop, we don't wanna kill each other."

"Wait, I thought you said the shields are messed up, couldn't this be really dangerous?"

"It'll be fine," Gaige reassured him. Koen thought this was extremely reckless of her, but decided to go along with it anyway.

"Also, no using that big robot of yours," Koen added, "I really don't want to have to fight that thing."

"Ugh, fine," Gaige agreed reluctantly.

Koen stood up, threw his backpack onto the ground and loaded a non-elemental arrow into his crossbow.

"You ready?" Gaige asked, "Okay, 3...2...1... Go!"

As soon as she yelled go, they both opened fire on each other. Gaige fired three quick shots from her pistol, but only one hit Koen and was absorbed by the shield. Koen's arrow missed its target, it sailed past Gaige, only a few inches from her right shoulder. Cursing, he quickly glanced around for cover. He noticed a rock about half his size a few metres to his right. He sprinted over to it and vaulted behind it before Gaige could get another shot on him. Behind the rock, he quickly loaded another non-elemental arrow. He stood up and aimed over the rock, searching for Gaige. She was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, a metal fist uppercutted his crossbow with enough force to knock it out of his hands. It flew through the air and landed a few metres behind him. He walked backwards from the rock, watching as Gaige hopped over the rock, aiming her pistol at him. He stopped walking and Gaige stood right in front of him, smiling.

"I think I win," She laughed.

"Oh really?" Koen asked.

As fast as he could, Koen grabbed the pistol in Gaige's hands and pointed it towards the ground. She desperately fired two shots into the sand. Koen planted a foot on Gaige's stomach and pushed her away with all his might. She yelped and stumbled backwards before falling onto the ground, dropping her pistol. Before she could get up, Koen ran over and tried to pin her arms to the ground. Gaige struggled against Koen's strength, but she managed to free her human arm enough to throw a punch. Koen grunted as he let go of her metal arm. Once Gaige's metal arm was free, she grabbed Koen by his hoodie threw her arm back, flinging him through the air. He landed on his back, but quickly stood up to face his opponent.

He saw Gaige making a run for his crossbow, which lay on the ground from when she had knocked it from his hands earlier.

"Oh no you don't," he said, breaking into a sprint. He was faster than Gaige, and quickly caught up to her. Once she was within distance, he attempted a diving tackle. He wrapped his arms around Gaige and they both crashed to the ground. She rolled over and continued to fight him.

"It's a tie!" he yelled into her face, and she stopped squirming. He stood aside and let her stand up.

"I think it's safe to say I won," Gaige said, dusting herself off.

"What? No you didn't!" Koen protested.

"Yeah I did," she replied confidently, as she went to look for her discarded pistol. Koen didn't bother arguing with her any further. She struck him as the kind of person that had a huge god complex, and he wasn't sure if he found that funny, or annoying.

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**A/N: Sometimes I wonder what is going on with Axton myself...**


	5. Hitting The Fan

**A/N: Here you go, Chapter 5. I was trying to write as much as I could during this chapter, so it's slightly longer than usual. Hope you enjoy! :)**

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Koen walked over and picked up his crossbow as Gaige went to look for her pistol. Koen turned the crossbow around, looking for any signs of damage. When he found none, he clipped it to his backpack and walked over to Gaige. He saw her pull the revolver out of the sand and holster it. As he watched her, he thought about their random, spontaneous fight. It had been over and done so quickly, he didn't get time to think about what was happening. Only one thing was on his mind during the fight: Gaige was an enemy. From the results of the fight, he reached the conclusion that he most certainly did not want Gaige as an enemy. That led him on to think about how lucky he was that she had found him. He tried to imagine how he would have survived here, alone, on this planet of psychos and bandits. He smiled to himself as he thought of his prosecutors, he wished they could see him now. He had been sent to this dangerous planet in the hope that he would be killed within minutes. They didn't count on him meeting this amazing girl.

Gaige jumped up and spun around to face Koen, swinging her arms. If Koen had learned one thing about Gaige during the whole time he had known her, it was that she did not like staying still for any length of time. He still liked being around her, she had this sort of infectious happiness about her that was hard to resist. Looking at this young girl, nobody could have guessed she would be capable of so much more than what she showed.

"Uhh, Koen, you okay?" Gaige asked, and Koen snapped back to reality. He realised that he had been staring at Gaige the entire time, and he felt his face go red.

"Oh-I-I… nothing," He stammered, feeling like a complete idiot. Gaige gave him a questioning look as she paused for a few seconds.

"Anyway," she finally said, ending the awkward silence, "We still got a bit of walking to do, if everything goes okay, we should reach the Highlands before the day is over."

Koen was actually excited to see more of this strange planet, regardless of how dangerous it was. In his eyes, it was a nice change from the grey skies, concrete jungles and forests of Eden-6. He secretly loved the wide open desert, and couldn't wait to see what else this planet had to offer.

"Right, well, let's get going then," Koen said with a smile. Gaige returned the smile with one of her trademark grins and they began to walk. Koen looked up at the sky, it looked to be around late afternoon. It was weird to think that they had only started walking this morning, and that the day was only a bit more than half over.

"You know what Koen," Gaige asked randomly, "I always wondered why you carry a crossbow with you instead of a machine gun or something."

Koen had been asked this question many times. His reply was always the same.

"No idea," he said, "I guess I just prefer it to any other type of gun, the accuracy, the power, I love it."

Gaige nodded slowly, accepting the answer.

Suddenly, they felt a strong wind push them forward slightly. The wind continued and they tried to protect their eyes from the sand that was being blown in their direction. Then, they heard a loud humming noise coming from directly above them. They looked up to search for the source of the deafening noise. They quickly found it. They saw a huge, wrecked airship floating in the sky above them. The ship consisted of a large platform held up by a large balloon.

"Oh, man, screw this!" Gaige yelled over the sound of the airship. "Run!"

The two began to sprint in the same direction they had been traveling. They exited the shadow caused by the massive vehicle and continued running. Koen wondered how fast the ship could go, and he assumed very.

He was right, he looked up to see the ship sail overhead. They were once again in its shadow. The ship stopped several metres ahead of them and floated in the air, blocking their way. They stopped running. Long ropes dropped from the ship, the ends touching the ground.

"What now?!" Koen shouted to Gaige.

"What do you think?!" she screamed back him, "We kill these bastards!"

Koen wasn't sure about this one. He didn't know if Gaige was just being over-confident again, or if these guys really were no big deal. But how could Gaige know that? This could only really go two ways, so he prepared himself for a battle. He loaded a fire arrow and glanced to his right. He was that Deathtrap was now hovering next to Gaige, ready to kill.

Dozens of mean began sliding down the ropes deployed by the ship. The two opened fire on the bandits before they could reach the ground. Gaige fired the whole clip of her revolver at an incredible speed. Deathtrap then sprang into action, flying over to the nearest unfortunate bandit he could find and tearing into him with his digi-struct claws. Meanwhile, Koen's fire arrow had connected with a bandit who was sliding down one of the ropes, setting the man on fire. The fire then spread up the rope, causing any bandit who was holding onto that rope to let go. A bandit up on the ship saw the threat that the flaming rope held, and severed it from the ship.

More and more bandits slid down the rope, as Koen began rapidly loading arrows and shooting them in every direction. Gaige continued firing and Deathtrap continued to tear into the bandits. Bandits continued to pour out of the airship, and Koen was getting worried. He reached back into his quiver for another arrow, but found that he had none left. He wasn't entirely out, he still had arrows in his backpack, but there was no time for that.

Koen watched as the bandits began to take formation. They arranged themselves in a semi-circle, surrounding the two. The bandits all turned their sights on Deathtrap and opened fire. The machine was hit by a hail of bullets. It looked like Deathtrap was taking quite a beating. Gaige panicked and quickly digitised him. Koen watched as there was a flash of white, and then the robot was gone. Koen noticed that Gaige had stopped firing. Gaige moved closer to him.

"Koen?" she whispered.

"Yeah?" he said.

"I'm out." When Gaige came back, she returned with only her revolver. She had worked with that and never bothered getting any more guns. She never planned for something like this. Looking back, that was incredibly stupid of her.

"Me too," Koen replied shakily. He quickly thought about all of their options at this point. There weren't many. "Run?"

"It's a bit too late for that now," Gaige muttered, sweeping her eyes over the large group of bandits.

"Then what the fuck do we do?!" Koen asked angrily in a hushed voice.

"I have no idea!" Gaige spat back.

Koen stopped to think. He sort of had a plan. No, it wasn't a plan, more of a general idea. He had no clue if any of what he was planning was actually going to happen, but he decided to roll with it. All this time, the bandits stood there, aiming their guns at Koen and Gaige, ready to fire.

"Okay Gaige, I have an idea," he whispered to her. She looked up at him questioningly, "Follow my lead."

Koen, very slowly, put his crossbow on his back, took a step away from Gaige, and put his hands up. Gaige stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds, before grudgingly putting her pistol away and raising her arms slightly. All around them, bandits began to laugh triumphantly. Gaige and Koen glanced quickly at each other.

"Boss, we got 'em!" One of the bandits yelled up towards the airship. The ship began to slowly descend until it touched the ground. When it was down, a man appeared at the railings on the side of the ship.

"About damn time!" He yelled in a deep, gritty voice. The man vaulted the railings and landed on the ground. He walked towards Koen and Gaige, the bandits parting as he walked through. This guy looked to be the leader.

"Well, what do we got here?" The man asked. He was incredibly built, and wore a ripped, brown vest, jungle camo army trousers and heavy boots. His whole appearance was topped off with various spikes and chains hanging off him.

"They call me Skye," he continued, walking closer and closer to the two. He dragged out word every word he said slowly, he seemed to be the kind of person that loves his own voice. "You know why?"

There was a long silence as nobody answered his question.

"See that up there?" he asked, gesturing madly up at the sky, "I own that shit, all of it. Every. Single. Fucking. Bit."

"Yeah that's great," Gaige said with disinterest, "Now what do you want with us?"

Skye's head snapped towards Gaige as he pointed a finger at her. "I-" He began, and then paused for a few seconds, looking around. "I have no idea, actually. Guess I'm gonna have to start improvising, huh."

He turned around and faced his group of bandits, holding his arms out. "Well guys?!" he yelled, "What do we do with them?"

None of the bandits replied or even looked at him. They all seemed afraid of their leader.

"I know!" he said, turning back around and looking at Gaige, cracking a huge, evil grin. "Take the girl."

Gaige desperately looked at Koen, as if to say 'What the fuck now, genius?'. Koen gave her a quick wink. When she saw the wink, a quick smile flitted across her face. Two bandits marched towards Gaige, one of them holding a length of rope. One of them held Gaige's arms behind her back, as the other tied her hands together. The bandits who tied her hands gave her a hard shove, to get her to walk towards the ship. She walked confidently, not causing any trouble. Skye joined her in walking as she passed by, and the rest of the bandits soon followed. Koen watched as Gaige disappeared through a door on the side of the airship. Just as Skye was about to walk through after her, he stopped and pointed to a random bandit.

"Hey, you!" he shouted, "Shoot the boy."

Those three words made Koen's blood run cold, as the bandit turned back to him, a grin on his face. The bandit pulled out a red pistol as he strolled over to Koen. The bandit stopped a few metres away, keeping his distance, and took aim.

"When will you Vault Hunters learn to stop fucking with our shit, you have no business here anymore." The bandit snarled.

_"You guys fucking came at us," _Koen thought, but he kept his mouth shut, he was in enough trouble already.

"You just run around killing bandits, just not giving a shit," the bandit rambled on. He then held up his hands slightly, "Now look at you."

While the gun wasn't directly aimed at Koen, he took his chance. Koen took 2 quick steps that brought him right next to the bandit, and launched an explosive punch straight to his face. The bandits head snapped backwards, and while he was stunned, Koen grabbed the pistol from his hand, and cracked him over the head with it. The bandit crumpled to the ground.

He held on to the pistol and quickly checked the bandit's body for anything of use. The bandit held little more than a few spare clips for the pistol that Koen now held in his hand. He turned the body over, and noticed that the bandit was wearing a backpack. There was a small, white label on the pack that read 'powershoot'. Koen figured that it was supposed to read 'parachute'. He took a chance and pulled the backpack off the body and put it on over his first backpack.

Koen looked at the airship, thankfully all of the other bandits had gone inside so nobody had seen what he had done. He had an extremely vague plan to save Gaige that went a little something like 'Board ship, Kill Skye, save Gaige, escape'. It seemed like a pretty solid plan, except for the fact that he had no idea how he was going to do any of that.

* * *

**A/N: I thought it was about time something bad happened.**


	6. The Great Escape

**A/N: Hello again! This time I'm bringing you the longest chapter of this story so far, I think. Anyway, I'm really enjoying writing this and I hope you guys are enjoying reading it. Anyway, I give to you, Chapter 6.**

**Enjoy!**

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Gaige had a sick feeling in her stomach as she was walked through a corridor inside of the airship. Skye and two bandits walked alongside her, keeping a close eye on her in case she tried anything. Gaige was looking worried, a slight panic had set in from the moment she stepped on to the ship. She wondered what they had done with Koen, had they killed him? Or captured him aswell? She hoped that if it was the latter, he would have some sort of plan to get out of this mess. She certainly didn't. Escape was hardly a choice, considering that the ship had taken off and they were now probably hundreds of meters up. Deathtrap was also going to be out of it for a while. He needed to recover from the damage he took and also the battery in Gaige's arm needed to recharge.

The feeling in her stomach grew stronger as they walked further along the corridor. She had only felt like this once before: when she was in the principal's office back on Eden-5, shortly after murdering Marcie Holloway. She again thought about her home, she desperately wanted to return to her family back on Eden-5. It was the same desperation that had made her decide to leave the Vault Hunters. She had lost everything when she came to Pandora, and now, she was leaving behind almost every friend she had ever made on this planet.

She had been so lost in her thoughts she didn't notice Skye and the two bandits stop. She continued walking for a second, looking down at the ground, until someone grabbed her by the hood and yanked her backwards. She instantly snapped to attention.

"This way," Skye said sternly as he pushed her through an open door. She stumbled out into cold, night air. Gaige hadn't noticed it turning dark, she had much more important things to worry about. They appeared to be on the top deck of the ship, a large metal platform with railings running all along the side. The deck slightly resembled that of a real ship. Skye once again shoved her, sending her into the middle of the deck.

"Stop fricken' pushing me!" Gaige shouted angrily, she really did not like being pushed around.

To this, Skye let out a long, hard laugh. "Oh yeah?" he said with an evil grin, "Whatcha gonna do about it?"

Gaige wanted to shout at him that if she had Deathtrap, he'd be dead right now, but she held herself back. She instead bit her lip and looked away from him.

"That's what I thought," Skye continued.

Skye turned towards the bandits out on the deck. "Everyone get out of here! Go and have a break or some shit!" he shouted. Every bandit suddenly stopped what they were doing and headed to the inside of the ship.

"Finally," Skye sighed and stepped away from Gaige, leaving her standing in the middle of the deck, "Now I can actually think about what I'm going to do with you." He stood with his back to Gaige, staring at the black clouds.

Gaige took this time to look around. Besides the deck she stood on, she saw nothing but clouds in all directions, they must have been very high up. Escape was beginning to look like less and less of a prospect. Not that it ever was, even if Deathtrap was ready for use, she couldn't get her arm into position to summon him. For now, she was stuck here with this psychotic bandit leader. She still held onto the hope that Koen would show up and save her, or at least try.

"Maybe I'll sell you to some other bandit clan," Skye mused, his back still turned, "Or maybe I'll just keep you here, on this ship… decisions, decisions."

Gaige, obviously, did not fancy either of those options. She hung her head and closed her eyes, feeling tears coming. No, she was not going to give up this easily. She opened her eyes and spun around in a circle, looking for anything that could help her escape. What she saw was one of the most relieving sights she had ever seen in her life. Behind a box right next to the door she had come from, she saw Koen. He had his hood up, obscuring most of his face and his reddish-brown hair.

Gaige was bursting with happiness, but they were not out of the woods yet. Gaige glanced back towards Skye, he was still in the same position, rambling on about what he was going to do with her. She looked back at Koen, who was making frantic hand gestures which Gaige could not understand at first. Koen pointed to the railing on the opposite side of the ship to where Skye stood. He then made two legs out of his second and third fingers and made them jump forward.

He wanted her to jump off the side.

At least, that's what she thought he was trying to say. This could end very badly if she was wrong. To make sure, she gestured to the railing with her head, and then jumped on the spot. She looked at Koen, who was giving a double thumbs up.

Gaige assumed that he had gotten hold of a parachute, or some means to get them down safely. Even then, this was incredibly risky. As dangerous as it was, it was the only way to sneak away without alerting every bandit on the ship.

Koen held up three fingers, and then two, and then one. Gaige didn't have time to think about the consequences anymore, she just went with it. After counting down on his fingers, he made a fist. Without thinking, Gaige sprinted as fast as she could to the side of the ship, hopped up onto the railing, and jumped off.

* * *

Koen looked up from the bandit's corpse in time to see the airship begin its take-off. Huge thrusters on either side of the ship began to let out a blue flame, as the sand all around the ship was blown away. Koen held his hands in front of his eyes, blocking the sand. He had to get onto that ship somehow. He began sprinting as fast as he could towards it, looking for a way aboard as he ran. The ship left the ground as it began to rise up into the air. He desperately searched for a way to get onto the ship.

As luck would have it, one of the ropes that the bandits had used to get down to the ground was still hanging down. As the end of the rope became further away from the ground, Koen jumped up and grabbed on to it. He began to rise with the rope.

_"Don't look down, don't look down," _he thought to himself as he was pulled away from the ground and up into the sky.

He very slowly began to climb his way up the rope towards the underside of the ship. This was, by far, the most dangerous thing he had ever done in his life.

"The things… I do… for you, Gaige," he huffed as he reached the top of the rope. He looked up, only to see a bandit leaning against the railing above him, with his back turned to Koen. He wasn't getting up that way. Instead, he tried moving his way into the middle of the underside. The darkness made this difficult, but enough light was being emitted from the thrusters for him to see roughly what he was doing. He looked for pieces of metal that he could use to monkey-bar his way across. He saw a series of horizontal metal bars running along the whole way across. He grabbed the first pole with his right hand, then swung himself along, grabbing the second pole with his left hand. This wasn't the safest way to do things, but it was faster, and he guessed there wasn't much time.

It was when he grabbed the third pole with one hand that he got a nasty surprise. It turned out that the pole was the release for an emergency hatch. As soon as he went to swing across, the hatch opened downwards. His left hand slipped from the fourth pole, and he was left hanging onto an open hatch. It was at this moment that he accidentally looked down, seeing how far he was off the ground. He guessed they were a couple hundred feet up.

"Fuck!" he yelled, as he grabbed onto the pole with his left hand. He then reached up through the hatch and grabbed onto the top of it with his right hand, bringing his left hand up afterwards. He then lifted his leg up onto the metal pole he had grabbed onto. Once he was in position, he jumped up onto the bottom floor of the ship. He rolled away from the hatch, taking deep breaths. What he had just done was incredibly stupid, but awesome.

"Jesus," he breathed.

After a few seconds, he stood up and took a look around. He appeared to be in a storage room of sorts. There were crates and barrels stacked up in every corner. He approached a door at the other end of the room and stopped in front of it. He slowly pushed the door open slightly and peeked through the tiny gap. He saw a narrow, empty hallway, but no sign of any bandits, or Gaige for that matter. Deciding it was safe, he pushed the door open the whole way, stepping out quickly and looking in the other direction. Again, he saw nothing but an empty hallway.

He took a wild guess and followed the hallway left from where he had entered. He walked quickly down the hallway, his crossbow in hand and checking over his shoulder every few seconds. Suddenly, he heard voices entering the hallway. He didn't know what else to do, so he opened the nearest door to him, thank God it wasn't unlocked, and entered the room blindly. He found himself in a dark, cramped room. It seemed like a sort of closet. He waited, listening to the sounds of his own breathing.

He then held his breath as he heard two voices go right past the door.

"I say Skye'll kill 'er," one of the voices said. Koen instantly realised that they were referring to Gaige. Those were the only words Koen picked up of their conversation as he watched their shadows disappear from under the door. He waited a few more seconds after they had gone to open the door and peek out again. Once he was sure that the coast was clear, he stepped out into the corridor and continued on his way, even more paranoid than before.

Once he reached the end of the short hallway, he saw an open door. He walked though into open air. He had reached the deck of the ship. It was then that he saw Gaige, standing in the middle of the deck, her hands still tied. Skye stood near the railing to the right, just staring out at the dark clouds.

He suddenly had an idea of how they were going to get out of this. His mind flashed to the second backpack he now wore on his back. He had established that it was a parachute, and from this, he came up with an even worse idea than climbing along the bottom of the ship. They were going to jump off the side. Now he just needed to get Gaige's attention without alerting Skye.

Luckily, he didn't have to try very hard, as Gaige spun around in a circle, noticing him as she did so. Koen quickly tried to relay his message using frantic hand motions. He pointed to the railing on the left side of the ship, before making his fingers into a pair of legs and making them jump over an invisible obstacle.

Gaige then nodded to the railing, and then jumped where she stood. She was checking if she had got the right message. Once Koen saw that she understood the message, he gave her a thumbs up with both hands. This could go incredibly bad, but he didn't get this far from playing it safe. He also wanted to find time to kill Skye, so he loaded an explosive arrow before raising three fingers, starting a countdown to the jump. He dropped his third finger, than the next one, that made a fist to indicate zero.

Things happened extremely quickly after that. Gaige made a mad dash for the edge, while Koen ran out from behind his box. He very quickly aimed at Skye with his crossbow and pulled the trigger. He didn't bother checking if he had hit him or not, he was much more concerned about saving Gaige. He reached the railing at the exact same time Gaige did. They both planted a foot on the railing and jumped off. Before they even began falling, Koen wrapped his arms around Gaige and held her tight. The wind picked up as they began to fall into the night. They rolled and flipped as the wind took them wherever it wanted.

Suddenly, bright orange lights in a line pattern came into view. Koen used these lights to decide when to pull his chute. When he decided that the lights were close enough, he pulled it. He instantly felt their velocity die away as it all went to the straps around his chest. Even with the force, he still held onto Gaige as tight as he could. The feeling of falling was replaced by a weird floating feeling. This continued for about a minute. During this time, they saw what was making the lights. There were streetlights dotted along a tarmac road. The ground became closer and closer until they finally smacked into it, both of them rolling to lessen the impact. They ended up directly under the light of a streetlight.

As Koen lay on the ground, recovering again from what he had just done, he realised that he was not lying on sand anymore. He ran his hand along the ground. They were lying on grass. It seemed like they were out of that damn desert, and into the Highlands. He then stood up and walked over to check on Gaige, whos hands were still tied up. Koen pulled out a regular arrow and used it to cut the rope away. As soon as Gaige's hands were free, she shot up and hugged Koen. He smiled and returned the hug as Gaige rested her head on his shoulder.

Neither of them said anything for a while, they didn't have to. They both knew how the other felt. Gaige was happy to be reunited with Koen, and Koen was happy for the same reason… well, that and the fact that he wasn't dead.

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**A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please leave a review. Or, even if you didn't, please leave a review and tell me why not. **

**Slán go foill! :D**


	7. Bun Dem

**A/N: I have returned from the world of reality to bring you Chapter 7 :D I'm really happy that I have somehow managed to increase my chpter length to at least 2k words a chapter. Once again, hope you are enjoying and will continue to do so. Please review if you can! :)**

**MEleeSmasher: Why thank you ^_^**

**Tera Tyrant Shadic: Yeah, that chapter was definitely more action-based than dialogue. The last few chapters were just mainly dialogue so I wanted to change that. As for 'Slán go foill', it means 'Goodbye for now' in Irish. :)**

* * *

A father and son sat on different chairs in the garden of their home. It was late in the evening, and both of them were tired from the work they had been doing all day. They each held bottles of water and were downing it thirstily. The son was leaning back on his chair, the back of his head touching the wall behind him. The son was twelve years old at the time. He was skinny, and around the average height for his age, with reddish-brown hair and blue eyes.

"Come on, let's get inside before it gets dark," the father said, he had pretty much the same features as his son, except he was in his early forties.

The boy stood up and followed his father through the back door of their house and into the kitchen. The kitchen, like the house itself, was quite modern. The family were not the richest people in the world, but they could still afford a nice house. As the son exited the kitchen, he passed something that he saw every day of his life, yet paid little attention to. He stopped walking and looked up at the crossbow that was hanging up on the wall, protected by a thick layer of glass. As he stared at the crossbow, he began to wonder if he would ever hold it in his hands and use it like his father once had. He studied every inch of the crossbow, from the scope attached to it, right down to its black finish.

Then, the boy felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see his father staring down at him, a smile on his face.

"Looking at the bow again, huh?" His father asked. "You really got an interest in that thing."

"Yeah…" the boy sighed, "Hey Dad, would you say I'd ever be able to use it?"

His father let out a chuckle, before doing something that his son had been waiting for him to do for a long time now. The father reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He searched around until he found the one he was looking for, a small, silver key. He put it into the keyhole at the side of the case that held the crossbow. He turned the key until he heard a clicking noise. He then removed the key and the pane of glass swung open like a door. He looked down to see his son watching with wide eyes, a smile slowly growing on his face.

The father removed the crossbow from its container. He held it up for a few seconds, admiring it, before handing it to his son. The boy reached out and grabbed it eagerly. The father laughed as the son brought the scope up his eyes, aiming at his father, knowing that there was no arrow loaded, and joined in with his laughter.

Suddenly, everything in the house began to catch fire at the exact same moment. The bright, orange flames spread rapidly through the house, destroying pretty much everything in its path. As flames began to fill the scene, the father and son stayed exactly where they were, as if frozen in time. The fire inched closer and closer to the two, until eventually it engulfed them completely.

"Koooeeeennnnn!" a voice screamed amidst the flames.

The voice paused as the fire raged on.

"KOOOEEEENNNN!" The voice screamed again, even louder this time. The fire continued until there was nothing to see but bright, orange flames.

* * *

"Koen!" Gaige shouted desperately, trying to get him to wake up from his tormented sleep. They had ended up sleeping in pretty much the same spot where they had landed after jumping off the airship, under a streetlight at the side of the road in the Highlands. She had woken up only a few minutes ago to the sound of Koen speaking quite loudly in his sleep. He started to move and twitch while still asleep, until he began to freak out completely.

Koen woke with a start, sitting up incredibly fast and nearly smacking his head into Gaige's in the process. She stumbled backwards from fright and ended up on the ground beside him. Koen was sweating bullets and taking deep, ragged breaths. He quickly pulled his hoodie up over his head and took it off, he had no idea why he hadn't done that earlier. He was now wearing a worn, brown t-shirt. He then reached into his backpack beside him and pulled out the huge water canteen that had pretty much kept both of them alive in the desert. He took off the cap and poured some water over his head, before putting the top to his mouth and taking three long gulps. His breathing began to slow back down to its normal pace. He noticed for the first time since waking up, that the sky was bright, it was either late morning of early afternoon.

All this time, Gaige sat where she was, growing even more worried with each passing second until she finally saw Koen relax back to his normal self. Nobody said anything for another minute. After the silence, it was Koen who was first to speak.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice still low and shaky.

Gaige shifted closer to him until she was sitting right beside him.

"I should be asking you that!" she exclaimed, before quieting down to explain exactly what she saw. "Well, uh, you started talking in your sleep quite loudly, which kinda woke me up. I just listened for about a minute or two, not really thinking anything about it, until you started… shouting, nearly. The way you were shouting, it was scary. Most of what was coming out of your mouth was just gibberish, but I heard a few words."

Koen stared blankly at the ground as he took all of this in. This was not the first time he'd had a nightmare like that, but he never knew of what it was like from the outside. "What was I saying?" he said. Not that what he was saying mattered, he was just curious.

"Kay, I managed to pick up on three things," Gaige replied, "'Dad', 'Koen', and this last one was a bit weird, but you said… 'Gaige.'"

_"Gaige,"_ Koen thought to himself. Why the hell would he say that? That nightmare had absolutely nothing to do with Gaige. He found it weird, but tried to ignore it. He didn't respond to Gaige, he instead just stood up and stretched his arms and legs.

"Come on, let's get going," he said, as he held out his hand to help Gaige up. She accepted it with her human hand and Koen pulled her to her feet. Koen then bent down to pick up his backpack, quiver and crossbow which lay on the ground where they rested.

Gaige watched him as he gathered up his things. She smiled to herself. She really liked the way his t-shirt was tight against his impressive arms. He wasn't the most muscly person in the world, Gaige thought, but he definitely wasn't bad. Gaige stopped dead in her tracks once she realised what she was thinking. She was slowly coming to the realization that she loved Koen. A lot.

She had liked him from the very first moment she saw him. She remembered hoping that he wasn't just another crazy bandit, and that they could actually form a friendship, and she had gotten just that. She was sure now that she loved him, yet she wondered if he felt the same way.

"You ready?" Koen asked, clipping his crossbow to his backpack.

"Oh, I-uh, yeah," Gaige stuttered.

Koen gave her a quick frown, before breaking into a smile.

"Well, let's get going then," he said, as the two began to walk once again. "How much further to the Arid... place?"

Gaige laughed slightly at his forgetfulness, "Honestly? No idea, we gotta get through the Highlands first."

"Are there going to be bandits here?"

"Nope, shouldn't be," Gaige replied, "You got much worse things to watch out for, take stalkers for example. They're these invisible, dragon-like thingies that like, go invisible and jump out at you and stuff-"

She was interrupted by a familiar beeping noise. She stopped walking, causing Koen to look back questioningly. She was getting a call on her ECHO device.

* * *

Maya and Lilith once again found themselves together inside the Crimson Raider's HQ in Sanctuary. There was not much to do after killing Handsome Jack and saving Pandora. Things got quite boring. Maya was sitting on one of the bottom bunks opposite Lilith.

Each day after Gaige's death became than the day before. People may have slowly been accepting her passing, but they certainly did not forget about her. Only one man in Sanctuary remained almost the same no matter how much time was given to him, and that was Axton. The other Vault Hunters were puzzled at his strange behaviour as they tried to make some sense of it. Eventually they gave up, they decided that he would get over it in time. Lately though, he seemed to be a lot better. He was spending less time in Moxxi's and more time with the Vault Hunters, but they still sensed something was off.

"So where is everyone?" Lilith asked, she was sitting in the swivel chair at Tannis' desk, staring up at the ceiling. Maya had a sudden flashback to when Gaige had asked her to help with mending her broken mechanical fingers. She pushed this memory to the back of her mind and continued.

"Well, Axton, Salvador, and I think Brick and Mordecai, are over in Moxxi's, most likely getting hammered, as per usual." Maya said.

"What?!" Lilith exclaimed, "They're only just up out of bed!"

"Doesn't stop them, apparently," Maya smiled. She didn't care if they went off to get drunk, yet she still had to wonder why they did.

"So where's Zer0 then?" Lilith said.

"Oh, he's been gone all night, he said something about a bandit camp nearby, and about how he was gonna go kill them all or something. It was a haiku, obviously, so I didn't really get what he was saying." Maya explained.

Lilith thought about this for a second. "Wait a minute, how the hell does he get up and down from Sanctuary without the Fast-Travel stations?" she wondered.

"Oh, you see," Maya said, holding in a smile, "Scooter built this massive ladder and-"

Suddenly, the door to the HQ swung open and Zer0 walked in, his bloodied katana strapped to his back, as always. He shut the door quickly and walked at a hurried pace over to Maya, where he stood over her.

"Zer0," Maya gasped, "Is something up?"

Zer0 quickly scanned the room, to see if anyone else was here. Once he was sure it was just Maya and Lilith, he turned his head back to face Maya, a ':O' illuminating on his visor.

"I have heard some news / Whispers among the bandits…" he leaned in closer before quietly uttering the last part of his haiku, "The Mechromancer."

The two women gasped at the exact same tame. Maya shot up out of her seat and faced Zer0 directly. "What about her?" she demanded.

"Bandits have seen her / A girl with a robot arm / On her way south-west," Zer0 said in his robotic, monotone voice.

Maya simply could not believe what she was hearing. Gaige, the girl who was once her friend, who Maya had watched die, and whos funeral she had gone to, was actually alive, out there somewhere. She had no idea how to feel about this. The first thought that entered her head was: why hadn't she told us yet?

"B-but," Maya stammered, "I saw her die! There were no New-U stations! We even buried her body! Were they sure it was Gaige?" Maya didn't know what to believe at the moment.

"They did not know her / They described her perfectly / I'm sure it is her," Zero said.

Maya glanced back at Lilith, and saw that her jaw was hanging open in disbelief. Maya turned back to Zer0.

"Where did the bandits see her?" Maya continued to question Zer0.

"The ones in the Dust / Contacted the ones nearby / She is in the Dust," Zer0 droned in his usual voice.

"Anything else?"

Zer0 paused for a few seconds before responding. "She is not alone / Accompanied by a boy / Who wields a crossbow."

Maya rushed over to her bed and lay down on the floor, reaching under the bed. Her hand fumbled for a few seconds before she stood up, holding an ECHO device in her hands.

"What are you doing?" Lilith asked, as Zer0 stood where he was, watching Maya.

"You'll see," Maya replied. She tapped a few buttons on the ECHO device and waited. The device began to make a bunch of random beeping noises, before falling silent. Lilith glanced at the display, it read:

**Gaige**

**Connecting…**

* * *

Gaige's face went white and she began to tremble as she pulled out her ECHO device. Surely this was a mistake, nobody she knew would intentionally call her. She held the device up to her face and looked at the display, not saying a word. The screen read only one name:

**Maya**

_"Maya?"_ Gaige thought, "_Why the hell is she calling me? There's no way she can think…"_

Gaige hit the mute button on the side of the ECHO to mute the microphone and held it away from her. Koen walked up to her and looked at the screen. He instantly recognised the name 'Maya' as one of the Vault Hunters Gaige was telling him about. This must have been one of the people who thought she was dead, well, not anymore it seems.

"Hello? Gaige?" Maya's voice called from the ECHO device. Gaige held the device away from her, staring into the distance at nothing in particular. Koen decided he should do something, he understood exactly what Gaige was thinking. He took the ECHO device from her hand, hit the unmute button, and raised it to his face. Gaige made no attempt to stop him, she just continued staring at nothing.

Koen sighed heavily. "Hello?" He said into the ECHO device." He wondered how Maya was going to reply to this.

There was a long pause from the other end, until Maya finally spoke again. "Who is this?" She asked quietly.

"None of your business," Koen grunted, "What's more important is why you called this ECHO device."

There was another pause before Maya came back again, sounding angrier this time. "Because I know Gaige is alive!"

Gaige broke out of her trance, looked at the ECHO device and then at Koen, a concerned look on her face. Koen reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. He had one more thing to say to Maya.

"Don't look for her," Koen said threateningly, and he hit the button to power off the ECHO device. He moved the ECHO device away from his face, and looked over at Gaige. He noticed that she had tears in her eyes. He put his second hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes, but instead of looking back into his eyes, Gaige bowed her head and looked down at the ground, trying to wipe the tears away.

"Hey…" Koen whispered quietly as he pulled Gaige into another embrace. She closed her arms around Koen, buried her face into his chest and began to sob lightly. He knew Gaige had been through hell getting to Pandora and been through it again while she was here. She wanted nothing more than to get off this planet.

* * *

"Don't look for her," was the last thing Maya heard before the ECHO device went silent. She guessed whoever she was talking to had turned it off. She wondered why he even answered in the first place. She now knew that Gaige was alive out there somewhere, and that she was going to find her, regardless of that the voice told her to do.

Maya tossed the ECHO device on to her bed and looked at Zer0. "Get Salvador," she said to him. Zer0 did as he was told, turning and walking out the front door. Before he exited, Maya remembered something. "Zer0, wait!" she called, and Zer0 stopped walking and spun around.

"Don't tell Axton," Maya said, and Zer0 nodded.

"Why wouldn't you tell Axton?" Lilith demanded, "I mean, he's still pretty messed up over this situation."

"That's exactly the point," Maya replied, "I have no idea how he's going to react to this. Like, I'm angry that Gaige didn't tell us she was well… alive, how do you think Axton's going to react. I'd rather tell him when I know she's safe."

"While you do have a point about Axton, I still don't know why you're chasing after Gaige. She obviously didn't tell you for a reason, maybe she wants to leave Pandora, you can tell she wanted to for a while." Lilith said.

Maya bit her lip as she considered this. "I just need to know she's okay," she said finally.

Just then, Zer0 walked back through the front door of the HQ, followed by Salvador, who was holding a bottle of rakk-ale. He took a long sip of the drink before addressing the group.

"So, what's going on amigos?" he asked.

"Salvador," Maya said sternly, "Gaige is alive somewhere on Pandora, and we're going to find her."

* * *

**A/N: Review, and you can have Gaige for an hour, but after that, I want her back :P** **Love it, hate it, whatever it is you people do.**

**See you next time!**


	8. Greyhound

**A/N: Hello again! I am currently up at 00:30 to bring you this chapter, so you better appreciate it! :P Anyway, thanks so much for your reviews on the last chapter, if I could get that amount of reviews on every chapter, i'd be delighted.**

**Commander Hammer: That review literally made my day, thank you so much! :D**

**GJ115: Hehe sorry about that!**

**Tera Tyrant Shadic: Hmm... solving a mystery. Guess we'll just have to see where the story goes!**

** : Glad that you're enjoying it! Your Gaige will be in the mail shortly, she's a little busy at the moment.**

**Gir240: Me too O_O**

**MEleeSmasher: Goosebumps? Interesting... xD**

**Remember, review, or else Gaige will bitch smack you with her metal hand. **

* * *

"Gaige is alive? Huh," Salvador muttered, folding his huge arms and nodding his head slowly. The gunzerker had always accepted Gaige as a member of the team, like any other person, but he never talked to her enough to get as close to her as Axton and Maya were. Still, her death struck a nerve beneath his tough exterior, and even though he didn't show it, he was quite sad that they had lost a member of the team. Especially since she was so young.

"Wait a minute," Salvador mused, "Why isn't she here then?"

"That's exactly what we're trying to find out," Maya said, "Apparently she's in the Dust somewhere, heading south-west, God knows why."

Salvador thought about this for a second. He walked over to the giant map of Pandora that was pinned to one of the walls of the HQ. He studied the map for a minute, trying to see if he could find out why Gaige was heading in that direction. He placed a finger in the centre of the Dust, and drew an invisible line heading south-west. His finger passed out of the Dust, through the Highlands and finished on the Arid Nexus Badlands, where the map stopped.

"Well, she's either heading for the Highlands or the Arid Nexus," Salvador concluded.

Maya walked up behind the dwarf and looked at the map. "Looks like it," she said, still trying to wonder why Gaige was going that way in the first place. It made no sense, why would she run from the only real safe zone on Pandora? She should have just come back to the Vault Hunters, Maya had no idea why she didn't. Maya racked her brains as she tried to think of what was of such importance in the Arid Nexus or the Highlands.

"Anyone know why she would go to either of these places?" Maya asked. Zer0, Lilith and Salvador all shook their heads at the same time. Maya sighed and looked back at the map, trying to make sense of the situation once again. She tried to imagine herself in Gaige's position. She combined that with the question of why she didn't come straight back to Sanctuary, and she got the answer she was looking for. She should have noticed it earlier.

"The Hyperion launch station," Maya whispered quietly, "She's trying to leave Pandora."

There was a silence before Lilith spoke. "Well then why don't you just let her? Why go chasing after her for no reason? If I was in your position, I'd just leave her." She said.

"Lilith, you know I can't," Maya replied, shaking her head, "Sorry to bring this up, but you'd do the same if it was Roland." Maya wasn't sure if she should have said that or not, she worried she may have touched a nerve.

Lilith looked down at the ground and thought about this. What Maya had said was true, things would be a lot different if it was Roland and Lilith knew it. While she did not agree completely with Maya's views, she could see where she was coming from.

"Yeah, you're right," Lilith sighed, "Go and find her then."

Maya quietly breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that Lilith did not go crazy at Maya's remark. "We will, but we're gonna need some help. Since the Fast-Travel stations are down, we may need you to phase us to the Dust. Gaige is probably on the move right now, so she could have even left the Dust by now, but it's the best place to start."

Lilith nodded her head. "Yeah, I will," she confirmed.

Maya smiled at her and turned to Zer0 and Salvador. "You guys up for this?" Maya said.

"Sí," Salvador shrugged.

Zer0 nodded again and said another haiku. "We will find the girl / I guess it is a challenge / But what of the boy?"

"I have no idea, Zer0, he may be an enemy, or he may be a friend, I'd bring guns just in case. Lilith, can you give us a few minutes to get ready?"

"Yeah sure, we got time," Lilith said.

Just as everyone was about to start getting their stuff together, Axton walked through the door, surprising everyone. "Well, well, well," he said, "This sounds like a fun mission to me."

Maya's jaw dropped when she saw him, he must have somehow heard their entire conversation. This was not going to end well.

"How- how much did you hear?" Maya stuttered, she was shaking all over.

"All of it," Axton replied, "You guys really should close the door. Anyway, mind if I join in on this little adventure?"

Maya was confused at his calm attitude about this, she was expecting a lot more shouting and swearing. Still, his response weirded her out, mainly because he sounded like he was controlling an insanity. "What for?" she asked sceptically. She was worried for Axton, she didn't know how he was going to act from now on.

"Same reason as you," Axton shrugged, his facial expression becoming increasingly menacing. What he said had been the truth, but there was another reason he wanted to come with them. He wanted to kill the person who had taken Gaige away from them in the first place.

* * *

Koen continued to hold Gaige even after she had stopped crying. Her face was still pressed against his chest and he still held his arms around her. He was gently swaying side to side. Despite the depression that Gaige was going through at the moment, he was actually enjoying this moment. As much as he didn't want it to end, he had to check if Gaige was okay. He pushed her away gently and held her by the shoulders at arm's length.

"You alright?" Koen asked, looking into the girl's emerald green eyes.

"Yeah," she said quietly, "Thanks…"

"Anytime," he smiled, sliding his hands down Gaige's arms before letting go. "You wanna keep going or do you want a break?"

Gaige was happy that Koen was taking her wellbeing into consideration. "Nah, I'm good. Might as well keep going."

Koen commended her determination, he also hated to see her sad. He was fine with going on, he just wanted to make sure that Gaige was. He turned around and looked at the landscape that lay ahead of them. It was a hilly terrain of rocks and grass, with small streams and waterfalls dotting the area. It stretched on for as far as they could see.

"So… it's more walking then?" Koen sighed.

"Unless you've somehow discovered how to fly, yup," Gaige smirked at him. He rolled his eyes at the comment, but he was glad Gaige was back to normal, or at least just holding things together.

"There's a town somewhere in the direction we're heading," Gaige continued, "If we get there before night, we could stay there. The town's called Overlook."

"Overlook," Koen nodded slowly, "Sounds good, it'd be great to get a good nights sleep."

He looked over his shoulder to see Gaige looking at him, a slight frown on her face. "Yeah…" Gaige said. There was a silence for a few seconds before Koen spoke again.

"Well, let's go then," He said, taking in a deep breath, and the pair began to walk in the same direction that they had been going from the very start, except now with completely different surroundings.

Gaige couldn't help but look at Koen as they walked. She wondered what he had going on inside his head. Although she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know. He seemed a bit… distracted ever since waking up this morning, like he was remembering something that he didn't want to. Gaige could see that whatever it was, it had to be something awful that he had experienced. She wanted to help him in whatever way she could, it only seemed right after what he had done for her, but he didn't look like he was up for talking about it. There are some things that can be healed in time, but occasionally, time is not enough.

* * *

Maya bit her lip and looked at Axton, still trying to figure out if he was okay. After all the Vault Hunters had gone through, she was still surprised that something like this had gotten to him so much. The other question that was on her mind was: what exactly was Axton going to do when they finally found Gaige again? He could do anything from hug her and cry with happiness to scream and shout at her for all the trouble she'd caused the others. After thinking about those possibilities, Maya was having second thoughts about the whole idea of chasing Gaige, but Maya knew that Axton would continue on regardless of whether she came or not. She eventually decided that she might aswell go with him, just in case he did something stupid.

"Anyway," Axton said loudly and clapping his hands together, "What's the plan?"

"Well, Lilith is going to phase us to The Dust, to start," Maya explained, "From there, we'll head south-west, where we heard Gaige is heading, and then hope for the best."

"Fair enough," Axton shrugged, before turning to Lilith, "You ready?"

Lilith was as wary and unsure of the commando as everybody else was. She assumed he could snap very easily at any moment, so she kept on his good side. "Uh, yeah I think so," Lilith said, "I think I might have to phase each one of you individually though."

Maya thought about this for a second. She had seen with her own eyes Lilith phase an entire city full of people at one time. Why would she need to teleport four different people separately?

"Whatever you gotta do," Axton said.

With a nod, Lilith walked up to Zer0 first and placed a hand on his chest. Her tattoos began to glow their familiar orange and then, with a bright flash of purple, Zer0 disappeared. Lilith then approached Salvador, and did the exact same thing. Once Salvador was gone, Lilith moved over to Axton, who stood with his arms folded, a strange look in his face. He stared into Lilith's eyes until he was phased away. After the others were gone, Lilith quickly turned to Maya.

"You may be wondering why I didn't just phase you all," Lilith said in a hurry, "That's because I wanted to talk to you before you go."

"Yeah, what?" Maya asked quickly.

"Watch out for Axton, there's something not quite right about him, it's obvious. I have no idea what's going on inside his head right now but I can guarantee it's worse than what he's letting on." Lilith said, before sighing deeply, "Look, all I'm saying is, keep an eye on him, there's no telling what he'll do once he catches up to Gaige."

And with that, before Maya could respond to what Lilith was saying, a bright light filled Maya's view and when it had cleared, she was standing in the Dust. She turned around to see the other three standing there. Zer0 looked to be scouting the area, while Salvador was checking his guns and ammo. Axton, on the other hand, stood in the same position Maya had seen him back in Sanctuary, standing with his arms folded and staring straight at her. Something frightened her about that stare, it was nothing like she had ever seen from Axton before. She pulled her eyes away from his and began checking her own weapons.

She wondered if she had made a mistake in leading Axton to Gaige. Sure, Maya still wanted to see the girl again, but above all, she wanted what was best for the young teenager, and she wasn't sure that this was it. She almost wished she had just let Gaige go in the first place, but it was too late for that. Now, they were like a pack of wolves, slowly but surely tracking down their prey.

* * *

"Wait, your Dad did what with the golf cart?!" Koen asked incredulously, before they both broke out into laughter. Gaige's laugh began to turn into a series of snorts, which only made Koen laugh even harder. Once they had both calmed down, Gaige continued.

"Drove the thing right through the front door of the Holloway's house and blew it up with a crap ton of gasoline," Gaige said, holding in more laughter, "Oh, man I wish I could have seen it."

"That Marcie sounds like a right…" Koen smirked.

"Bitch-face?" Gaige suggested, once again displaying her outright hatred towards Marcie.

"Yeah," Koen agreed, "Why did you hate her so much anyway?"

Gaige sighed as she remembered her school days, "She was just always bullying me, shoving me around, calling me names, stuff like that."

"Hmph, bitch," Koen grunted.

"Definitely," Gaige said with a smile, "So that's why I built Deathtrap in the first place, to stop bullying, I think you can say it works. Just ask Marcie."

Koen rolled his eyes at the girls insanity, knowing well that Marcie wasn't more than a splat of blood somewhere.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by a low growling sound coming from behind them. They had been walking for a few hours without any interruptions, but it looked like it was time for Koen to meet some of Pandora's wildlife. They spun around, both drawing their weapons, ready to take down whatever it was that was after them. Gaige pulled out her revolver. She had managed to scavange a few clips worth of ammo for it on the way here.

"Stalkers," Gaige said quickly, "You know those invisible things I told you about? Well, they'll stay invisible until their shields are drained, then they have to become visible. Since the best way to lower a shield is electricity, I recommend using that."

Koen grunted again to show that he understood all of this. He quickly loaded an electric arrow and continued scanning the area for any visible signs of the stalkers. He searched until he saw some strange purple electricity hovering along the ground. He instinctively fired at it. There was an electrical explosion as the arrow connected with it's target. The beast's shield was instantly lowered and it came into view. The creature resembled a dragon, except it was a lot smaller, with a purple body and yellow wings. Once Gaige saw the stalker, she opened fire, killing the thing in a few shots.

They heard more growls coming from behind them and they tried to pinpoint the source of the noise. Suddenly, Gaige yelped as a stalker became visible and jumped straight for her, knocking into her and sending her stumbling back a few steps. The stalker continued to advance on her. Just as Koen was loading an arrow, another stalker jumped out of seemingly nowhere. Before he could react, the stalker was on top of him and had him pinned to the ground, snapping its jaws in his face, trying to get a bite. He let go of the crossbow and instead tried to focus on holding the creature back as it continued to take bites out of the air. He tried to bring his legs up to kick the beast off, but it had him pinned down tight. He was beginning to panic, he knew he couldn't keep this creature off him forever. He wondered where the hell Gaige was as he continued to wrestle with the stalker. After a few seconds of desperate struggling, Koen heard three quick gunshots. He felled the creature go limp as it collapsed on top of him. He pushed the corpse off him and stood up.

He looked around to where Gaige was, but instead saw the very last person he expected to see. His father stood before him, a smoking pistol in his hand. Koen was in complete shock, this was impossible, completely, there was no way this was him. Koen tried to say something, but only a faint choking noise came out. His brain was struggling to comprehend what his eyes were seeing.

"D-dad?" Koen stammered in disbelief.

"Hey Koen, it's me," his Dad said with a strange grin.

Suddenly, everything began to click into place for Koen, everything about his father seemed… off. He began to add up all the irregularities.

"No, no no no…" Koen said, his voice getting louder and faster, "You're not real! You're dead! I know that!"

His father dropped the pistol to the ground and began to slowly walk towards his son, a big grin still on his face. Koen ran over, picked up his crossbow and loaded a basic arrow, aiming at his approaching father. As soon as his father saw the crossbow, he stopped walking, but still never dropped that smile. It was beginning to annoy Koen.

"Just thought I'd tell you something about your friend Gaige," His Dad said. Koen froze when he heard his friends name.

"What about her?" Koen asked through gritted teeth, never taking the crosshair away from his Dad's face.

"You know she hates you, right? She wishes she never found you, she's trying to get away from you," his father continued.

Koen outright refused to believe this. "Shut up!" Koen screamed, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

Koen shut his eyes, his breath coming almost as fast as his heartbeat. He remained like this for a few seconds, before he opened his eyes again. This time, he saw Gaige standing in place of his father, her revolver on the ground next to her and her arms held out, a worried expression on her face.

Koen began to tremble as he realised what had just happened. He dropped his crossbow to the ground, and then collapsed after it. He lay flat out on the grass, holding back tears. Gaige very slowly walked over to him and knelt over him, putting a hand on his chest.

"Koen," Gaige asked quietly, she sounded on the verge of crying herself, "What's going on?"

Koen sat up and ran a sweaty hand down his face. "I… I don't know," he replied shakily.


	9. The Definition of Insanity

__**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry this one took slightly longer than usual. I would make an excuse, but I have none :/ Anyway, uh, so I got no reviews on the last chapter which is... disappointing to say the least. I mean I know people are still reading this from the views, but I need to know what you guys think of each chapter,if you like where things are going or not, so I can change things or whatever needs to be done.**

**So, with that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter :D Please, please, please review, it helps so much.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Gaige_

_2 months ago_

Gaige was in a good mood as she walked along the corridors of her school. She was heading towards the final and her favourite class of the day: Science. She had no idea where the sudden burst of happiness came from, but she didn't question it. She walked on her own towards the next class, which was at pretty much the other end of the whole school. She wore her usual schoolbag on her back, and was also carrying a small pile of textbooks.

Gaige trailed behind a group of her classmates as they all made their way to the next class. She didn't really have much friends in school. She knew that her classmates didn't like her, but she had stopped caring quite a long time ago. Just as they were nearly at the class, something on the wall caught Gaige's eye. She pulled away from the group and walked over to the notice board stuck on the wall. There were notifications about various different events within the school pinned to it, but one of them interested Gaige particularly. There was a leaflet pinned up about the Eden-5 Youth Science fair. She read out the details on the leaflet and began to smile. The science fair was around 4 weeks away. That gave her enough time to make something impressive. She loved showing off her engineering genius, so she took every chance she got to do so.

"Oh, hey Gaige, whatcha doing?" asked a girl's voice behind her, in a sarcastic tone. Gaige instantly recognised the voice. She closed her eyes and sighed before turning around. Sure enough, Marcie Holloway was standing there, in front of her group of friends. Gaige absolutely despised Marcie in every way. Marcie would try and annoy Gaige whenever she could, for no reason that Gaige could see. Her group were just as bad, they followed Marcie around everywhere, and joined in with whatever she did to Gaige.

"Hey Marcie," Gaige said blankly. She did her best to ignore Marcie at times, but mostly she was just too annoying. Gaige would have walked away at this point, if it wasn't for the fact that Marcie and her friends were completely blocking the only way to class. Gaige clutched her school books close to her chest and wished that Marcie would go away.

"What's this?" Marcie asked, brushing past Gaige to look at the leaflet that was pinned to the notice board. She stared at it for a few seconds, then turned around. "A science fair? Hm, I might just have to enter and win."

Gaige frowned at her, getting angry. "Marcie, you're failing Science," she pointed out. This was true, Marcie was the worst at Science in the whole class, so she wondered why would she bother entering the science fair, until she realised that she would only do it to beat Gaige in it. "Why do you even wanna win anyway?" Gaige asked sceptically.

"Well, if I win, that means you don't," Marcie said, before breaking into one of the most annoying laughs Gaige had ever heard in her entire life. Gaige knew that Marcie was only doing this to piss her off, and she had succeeded. Gaige was furious at the fact that Marcie was just entering so she could beat her. Gaige glared at her in anger.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Marcie said to the group of girls, and turned back and stepped right in front of Gaige, "May the best scientist win," Marcie said with a grin. Just before she turned to leave, she reached over and gave Gaige a hard shove. Gaige stumbled backwards and hit the notice board. Marcie and her crew laughed as they walked away towards the Science classroom. With another sad sigh, Gaige headed to class, still fuming at what had just happened. She had to find a way to get back at Marcie. She had to.

* * *

Gaige was still angry as she opened the front door to her house. She marched down the narrow hallway and into the kitchen. She saw her Dad sitting at the kitchen table, eating some kind of sandwich. He looked up when he saw his daughter enter the room.

"Hey, sweetheart, what's up?" her Dad asked with his mouth full, spewing crumbs everywhere.

Gaige ignored him and instead stormed through the kitchen and flung open the door to her workshop. She went inside and slammed the door loudly behind her. Gaige's Dad sat where he was, puzzled at his daughters strange behaviour. Something had obviously got to her, he thought. He decided to let her stay in there for a while, he assumed she just needed some space for a while.

Inside the workshop, Gaige threw her schoolbag onto the ground and sat down in her office chair. She wheeled the chair over to her workbench and rested her head on it, thinking hard. She had to build, repair or just do something in order to take her mind off the Marcie situation. She thought long and hard about what she wanted to do. Then, she had an idea. She thought back to the leaflet she had been reading back in school, before Marcie had come along.

An idea began to develop in her head and a smile formed on her face. She was definitely going to do this, it was the one thing that would simultaneously win her the science fair and solve her Marcie problem forever.

* * *

_3 Years Ago_

Koen woke up an instantly realised something was wrong. The fifteen year old was still wearing the same t-shirt and jeans he had on yesterday. He had come home late and just crashed onto his bed. But now, something had woken him up.

He woke up sweating badly, the room was way hotter than it should have been. A bright light crept through the door and into his room. He pulled himself up off the bed to go and investigate. As he got closer to the door, he felt he air get thicker and thicker. He grasped the handle the door, and after a moments pause, he pushed it down. He quickly pulled the door towards him and was greeted by one of the most terrifying sights he had ever seen. One that stuck would stick with him for a long time.

The whole upstairs hallway was on fire, and a thick cloud of smoke hung in the air. Koen's lungs quickly closed up from the smoke and he began coughing. He crouched down low, where there was slightly less smoke. He blindly felt his way along the wall until he touched the door to his parent's room. He reached up and pulled down the handle of the door. He opened the door and saw nothing but even more fire. The flames were completely obscuring his view into the room. He wondered where his parents were. Had they got out? There was no time to ask questions, he had to get out of here. He quickly made his way to the stairs and began going down the steps, still crouched to keep away from the smoke. He could barely see anything but the black of the smoke and his eyes were watering, but he kept them open. He reached the bottom of the stairs and moved towards the front door. He tried to open the door but found that it was locked, he should have guessed that. He noticed the key on the wooden table beside him and grabbed it. He desperately tried to get the key into the hole, as the smoke continued to fill his lungs, making it harder to breathe. He eventually got the door open and stumbled out of the burning house and into the cold air of the night. He dropped to his knees, coughing uncontrollably.

He looked back through the open door, and something caught his eye. He saw the one object that should not be left there, regardless of what state the house was in. Koen decided he was going to go back in and get it. He took a deep breath and stood up. He sprinted back through the door and into the flaming hallway. Everywhere around him, pieces of the wall and roof were crashing to the ground. He dodged the falling debris until he reached what he was looking for. He stopped in front of the glass cabinet that housed his Dad's crossbow. He tried to pull it open, but remembered it was locked tight. Koen began to panic, it was becoming increasingly difficult to breath, and he wondered how much longer he could stay in here. He needed a way to break into the cabinet, and fast. He looked around and quickly found one of his Dad's old jackets hanging from a stand right beside him. He grabbed the coat and wrapped it around his right hand. He then looked at the cabinet, brought his right arm back, and punched the glass cabinet. His punch left a huge crack in the glass, but did not break. Cursing, he pulled his arm back again and launched a second punch. This time, the whole glass cabinet came crashing down in pieces. Koen caught the crossbow with his other hand. He turned towards the door and sprinted for it as fast as he could.

He made it out of the house and continued running until he was a few metres away from the front of the house. He watched as the fire began to smash the upstairs windows and the roof began to collapse in on itself. Instead of doing about the fire, Koen just sat down on the ground and watched the burning building, waiting for his parents to come out.

* * *

_Gaige_

_1 month ago_

"Don't call him DT anymore Dad…" Gaige said in a low voice, "His name, is Deathtrap."

Gaige brought up her metal arm and her robotic companion digistructed in front of her. Gaige beamed as she displayed her work.

"He's looking good," Gaige's Dad grinned, "You'll win the science fair for sure!"

"Of course I will," Gaige replied simply. Even if Marcie had stolen Gaige's design, Gaige was sure that Marcie's robot would never match up to Deathtrap, even if she did have more money than God.

"Wait a minute, what happened there," Gaige's Dad asked with a frown, looking at the small wooden table that was split in two down the middle. Gaige had punched this with her metal arm only a minute ago, while testing out what her cybernetic limb could do. Now, she scrambled for an excuse as two why the table was in two pieces.

"I-uh…" Gaige stammered, "Umm, bye Dad!" Gaige walked over to her Dad and used the power of her metal arm to gently shove him through the open door of her worhshop.

"Wait, what-" Gaige's Dad began to say. Gaige interrupted his sentence by slamming the door after she had pushed him out. She turned back around and smiled at her robot, who was floating in front of her. She went to sit back down in her chair, before she realised just how exhausted she was. She checked the time on her ECHO device. The time read 00:41. She had been working non-stop for nearly 5 hours at this point. She decided it was about time to call it a day and get some sleep. She left all her tools the way they were and digistructed Deathtrap away. She opened the door of her workshop that led into the kitchen, hitting the lights after her. She didn't see her mother or father anywhere, so she assumed they had gone to bed. She moved quietly through the house, making her way through the kitchen, into the hallway and then up the stairs to her bedroom.

She closed her bedroom door behind her and looked at the room. It was still a mess, like it always was. Clothes, papers and random pieces of metal littered the floor. She didn't care how it looked, all she had to do was sleep here. Gaige was struggling to keep her eyes open at this point, she wanted nothing more than to just collapse into her bed. She noticed that she was still wearing her school uniform. Granted, she had just run into her workshop the second she got home from school and not come out until now, so that was acceptable. She kicked off her shoes, pulled off her denim hoodie and unbuttoned her skirt. Wearing nothing but her stockings and ripped t-shirt, she crashed onto her bed and pulled the covers over her. She rested her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. She was asleep within seconds.


	10. The Path Before Us

**A/N: So this is the longest chapter I have written with probably the shortest break in between. I am quite proud of myself! :D****Anyway, thanks for the reviews on the last chapter, you're all awesome! Also, this is probably end of the flashback chapters for now, though they will still be there, they won't take up entire chapters.**

**kricCena: Yus, that will be coming eventually.**

**mika laylani: It's cool, you always review! :D Thanks!**

**Tera Tyrant Shadic: Thanks for the feedback, you always give great reviews! :)**

**Right, so, here we go, chapter 10.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_1 year ago_

_Eden-6_

Two teenage boys leaned against a rock that was on top of a cliff overlooking the sea. They came here often, simply because they liked the view. They each wore similar clothing, jeans, runners and a hoodie. One of them had a large backpack on his back, along with a crossbow and a quiver. The other also had a backpack, but had an SMG strapped to his leg. The teenager with the crossbow sat down with his back against the rock, while the other boy remained standing.

"You alright Koen?" the boy who was standing up asked.

"Yeah Marshall, I'm fine," Koen replied, looking down at the ground. Marshall could tell that his friend definitely was not fine. Koen occasionally got in these moods and Marshall knew that there was always something causing them. He could usually guess, but sometimes it wasn't always so evident.

"You don't look fine," Marshall said as he looked down at Koen, who didn't respond in any way to what Marshall way saying. With a sigh, Marshall dropped his backpack to the ground and sat on the ground. He sat with his back to the cliff's edge, facing Koen, with his right knee up and his right arm resting on top of it. "Come on, what's up?"

Koen let out a sigh and leaned his head further back into the rock until he was looking up at the sky. "I don't know how much longer I can do this," he said quietly.

This caught Marshall off guard completely. He expected something about Koen's past to be bothering him, but it was never something like this.

"What do you mean?" Marshall asked, giving Koen a slight frown.

Koen tilted his head and looked at his friend, giving him a look that said _"You know what I mean."_ Koen paused for another few seconds before continuing.

"This… killing of random people for no reason. Look at us, you're nineteen and I'm seventeen, we should be off doing much less important things. Yet here we are, doing what no young person should ever have to do."

Marshall closed his eyes and thought about this. He had no idea where Koen's attitude towards their life came from, but more importantly, he didn't know how to deal with this.

Marshall couldn't remember how all of this had started, it seemed like a lifetime ago. All he knew now was that they were both regarded as mercenaries, he was still trying to figure out how that one came about. At first they were unsure about it, until they realised that they literally had no other option. Marshall had often worried about Koen through the whole thing. He wondered if Koen was able to cope with all that was happening. Mostly, Koen kept it together, but at times like this, he needed some hope and also a quick reminder as to why they did what they did.

"Koen," Marshall said, as he turned himself around to face the edge of the cliff, "I can guarantee you this won't go on forever. Things will change eventually, trust me on that. One day, this will all be over, and you'll be able to maybe get away from this planet, maybe go to somewhere that isn't a dump like here. Maybe you'll get to start up a new life somewhere else, settle down, meet a girl or something.

Koen looked down at the ground and smirked, thinking about all of the possibilities the future could hold for him.

"Look," Marshall continued, "All I know is I don't want this any more than you do, and I swear I won't let this go on any longer than it has to. But for now, you gotta hold on, you have to keep going. Not just for me, but for yourself, think about it."

Koen bit his lip and nodded slowly, taking what his friend had said in. Those were the kind of inspiring words that Koen needed at the time. A smile began to spread across Koen's face. Marshall saw the smile and returned it with a grin. It looked like he had succeeded in cheering his friend up. He always did, one way or another.

Koen looked over at the closest friend he had in the world at that moment. "Thanks for that, man."

* * *

Gaige stood where she was, locked in place from the shock of what had just happened. Moments ago, there was a normal science fair taking place around her. Now, there were people screaming as they sprinted away from what was now a bloodbath.

Gaige was still struggling to comprehend what had happened, but it went a little something like this:

Gaige stood proudly in front of her floating companion as a panel of judges inspected every inch of her creation. Gaige was sure she was going to win this thing, what with Marcie's Crime-Buster Bot unable to do more than fire a laser and then overheat. Things were looking good, Gaige thought, as she watched the judges perform all kinds of tests. Eventually, the judges all huddled together and began to whisper to each other, before they all simultaneously wrote something down on their clipboards. After that, they walked away to look at some other entry.

As soon as the judges left, Gaige noticed Marcie Holloway walking towards her, that same superior yet care-free look still on her face. Gaige prepared herself for an array of insults and abuse, as was only to be expected from a person like Marcie. Marcie stopped right in front of Gaige and folded her arms.

"It's not looking too good for your floating hunk of junk," Marcie taunted. Gaige had no idea what she meant by this, considering the judges were severely unimpressed by Marcie's robot. Gaige shot her a questioning glance.

"Whadd'ya mean?" Gaige asked, genuinely unsure about what Marcie was saying.

"See for yourself," Marcie said confidently, as she gestured towards a table that all of the judges were gathered around. A man wearing a tuxedo stood over them. The man was tall and thin, he wore expensive looking glasses and his black hair was slicked back. Gaige saw the man place a black suitcase on top of the judge's table and flicked it open. Eyes bulged all around him as the judges saw the contents of the suitcase. After letting them stare for a few seconds, he snapped the case shut, waking the people out of their trance.

The man then walked over to the head judge and began talking to him. The judge appeared nervous and acted scared of the man. Gaige began to piece what was happening together, and she became angry when she realised what it was.

"Is that what I think it is?" Gaige asked angrily, through gritted teeth.

"Yep!" Marcie said happily, "Looks like Daddy just bought off the whole judge's panel. Good luck winning now, Gaige!"

And with that, Marcie began to laugh. She was obviously delighted at once again making Gaige look bad. As Gaige glared at her, she felt a tear welling up in the corner of her eye. She thought about all of the time and effort she had put in to make Deathtrap what he was. She thought about how completely unfair it was that Marcie was going to win just because her father was high up in Hyperion and so had enough money to do whatever he wanted, including bribing whoever he pleased.

Not knowing what else to do, Gaige went over to her robot and stood beside him, awaiting the inevitable judge's result. She swept her eyes across the big room, looking at what other people had made. None of them even came close to Marcie's robot, let alone Gaige's. The most impressive thing Gaige had seen that night was a lemon that somehow set itself on fire and kept burning without damaging the lemon. The boy who built it had nicknamed it something like 'The Combustible Lemon', or something along those lines, Gaige didn't really care.

Finally, Gaige saw the head judge walked up onto a stage at the end of the room. He still looked just as nervous as he had when he was talking to Mr. Holloway. The judge moved over to a microphone that was set up on the stage and tapped it three times, causing a loud thumping noise to come from the speakers all around the room.

"Uh, hello everyone," The judge said quietly, "Me and the other judges have finished discussing and we have decided on a winner!"

_"Discussing,"_ Gaige thought to herself, the only discussing that had gone on over there was how much money it took to bribe those idiots.

"The winner, of this year's Eden-5 Youth Science fair is… Marcie Holloway and her Crime-Buster bot!"

Upon hearing these words, Gaige thought she was going to burst into tears right then and there, but she held it together. She knew Marcie was going to rub this in, but Gaige would just have to deal with it. Like she always did.

Marcie instantly turned around and faced Gaige, laughing at her. Gaige tried her best to look away and ignore Marcie, but she couldn't do it. Not this time.

"Well, Gaige, look where that pile of junk got you!" Marcie said in between fits of laughter. Gaige had had enough of it at this point. Gaige looked at Marcie, fire in her eyes.

"Go away, Marcie," Gaige said in a low, threatening voice.

Marcie raised an eyebrow, as if she was not quite believing what she was hearing. "Um, did you just say-"

"I said go away Marcie!" Gaige screamed at her, unable to control the anger inside of her. Gaige took a step towards Marcie.

"Or what, Gaige?!" Marcie shouted back, taking a step towards Gaige so that they were both in each other's faces. "You gonna get your useless robot to help you?! I'd like to see it try!"

Suddenly, Marcie gave Gaige a hard shove. Gaige was caught off guard by this and stumbled backwards into Deathtrap, smacking her head into his metal torso. Gaige lost her footing and slipped to the ground.

Things happened very fast after that. Gaige saw Deathtrap hover over her and towards Marcie. Gaige wondered what he was doing, until she finally figured it out. Deathtrap was doing the one thing he was designed to do: beat up bullies. Gaige watched in excitement as she saw Deathtrap raise a huge metal claw, intending to give Marcie a quick slash with them, just like he was supposed to. A smile grew on Gaige's face as Deathtrap brought his huge, metallic arm down on top of Marcie.

But, Gaige's smile dropped when something happened that Gaige did not expect. The very second the tip of Deathtrap's claw came into contact with Marcie, there was a huge shower of blood as Marcie exploded into pieces. Skin, bones, flesh, everything went all over the place as Marcie vanished in a cloud of red that covered everything close by, including Gaige.

It took Gaige a few seconds to figure out exactly what had happened. She realised she must have messed up the Discord circuits, big time, which somehow gave Deathtrap the ability to do that to people whenever he attacked them.

There was a short silence for a few seconds as onlookers took in what was happening. After a few seconds of quiet, the entire crowd began screaming and running around. Gaige pulled herself to her feet and watched the scene unfold. Her brain could simply not process what was going on. She just stood there mindlessly, staring at nothing.

Then, she felt a heavy hand grab her right shoulder and spin her around, snapping her out of her dazed state. She looked up at Mr. Holloway, who was screaming at her at the top of his lungs. He was screaming so loudly and angrily that Gaige could barely understand what he was saying. He stopped shouting and began to walk, yanking Gaige's arm and taking her with him. She tried to escape but his grip was too firm. She trailed behind him as he dragged her through the room and away from the bloody scene.

* * *

Gaige sat in a chair in front of a desk in the principal's office. The principal, a short, bald, fat man, sat behind the desk, staring at Gaige in disbelief. Mr. Holloway stood next to the principal, still fuming over what happened, which was understandable. Gaige felt terrified and powerless as the two men shouted at her over what happened. She clutched the bottom of the chair tight. She let her head slowly drift downwards and wished that this would be all over. A shout from right in front of her snapped her awake again.

"Hey, look at me, girl!" Mr. Holloway shouted, and Gaige looked up at him, "Do you have any fucking idea what you've done?!"

That was too much. Gaige couldn't hold it in any more. She felt tears running down her cheeks and her vision went slightly blurry from the water. Her lips were trembling as she tried to choke out words.

"I-I…" she tried to make words, but found she simply couldn't.

"Jesus…" Mr. Holloway sighed in anger, brushing a hand through his hair and pacing back and forth.

Right then, the door behind Gaige flew open and her Dad burst through the door. "What the hell is going on here?" he demanded.

Gaige turned around in her chair to face her Dad. Their eyes met and Gaige's Dad noticed the tears in his daughter's eyes. Her Dad shot daggers at the other two men in the room, before walking over to Gaige crouched down slightly so that he was at eye level with her. He brushed a stray hair out of her face and kissed her forehead.

"I won't let anything happen to you," Gaige's dad whispered in her ear. Those were all the words Gaige needed to be filled with confidence. She sat upright in her chair and wiped the tears from her eyes. Her Dad stood up to face Mr. Holloway.

"Mr. Martin," Mr. Holloway said angrily, addressing Gaige's Dad, "I hope you realise what this bitch has done. She-"

"I'm sorry what was that?" Gaige's Dad asked, his voice rising, "I better not have heard what I thought I heard!"

Mr. Holloway backed up slightly, but his tone of voice didn't change. "You know what you heard," He replied coolly.

With this, Gaige's Dad took another step forward so that he was right up in Mr. Holoway's face, causing Mr. Holloway to back away slightly.

"You wanna try repeating that with a fucking broken jaw?!" Gaige's Dad shouted at the man.

There was a tense silence during which nobody said anything. The principal and Gaige could only watch as the two men screamed at eachother. Gaige smiled slightly at her Dad's last comment, he really was the best Dad ever.

The silence was interrupted by a faint beeping sound coming from where Mr. Holloway was standing. He slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small ECHO device. He pressed a button on the side and raised the device tohis ear like a phone. He began frowning only a few seconds after answering. Gaige looked her Dad and noticed him giving her a quick wink. Gaige had no idea what that was for, but she guessed she was going to find out.

"Wha- the house- golf cart? Okay okay, honey, I'll be right there," Mr. Holloway panicked. He turned off the ECHO device and looked back at Gaige and her Dad. "You two stay right here, I'm not done yet. She's going to jail for what she did, and there's nothing you can do Mr. Martin."

Mr. Holloway then brushed past the two of them and ran out the door. That left Gaige and her Dad alone with the principal, who wasn't looking too sure of himself. Gaige's dad motioned for her to get up and she did so. Her Dad wrapped an arm around her shoulder and walked her over to the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" The principal called from behind them, still not leaving his desk.

"Stay out of this, unless you want your house burned to the ground," Gaige's Dad replied.

Gaige was still piecing together exactly what her Dad had done. She figured it had something to do with fire and a golf cart, she could only imagine.

* * *

_2 weeks ago_

Koen lay sprawled out across an old, dusty couch inside what him and Marshall referred to as 'The safe-house'. It really wasn't much of a safe house, it was actually just an old, abandoned house that they had found one day and lived there ever since. The house was pretty much falling apart, so whenever it got cold, which was often on Eden-6, there was little Koen and Marshall could do to stay warm. There were also massive holes in the roof, so whenever it rained, which, again, happened quite a lot, they knew all about it.

Still, things could have been worse, they could have had no house whatsoever, that would definitely have sucked. At that moment, though, Koen was actually getting quite comfortable here on this wrecked couch. Marshall had gone out to do something. Koen remembered Marshall explaining where he was going, but Koen forgot only minutes after he had left. He now lay here, waiting for him to come back, which could have been in any length of time.

He grabbed his ECHO device from the table next to him to check the time. The screen displayed 20:52. Sighing, he reached over to put the ECHO device back down onto the table, but just before it touched the table, it began making a familiar beeping noise. Frowning, he glanced at the screen. It looked like someone was trying to call him. Curious as to who, he hit a button on the device to allow the call. He held the device close to his mouth.

"Hello?" He asked into the device. It was a few seconds before a reply came.

"Hello," a man's voice said from the other end of the device. Koen couldn't guess what age the man was, but he guessed he was older than Koen.

"Is this Koen?" the man said, catching Koen by surprise. How did he know his name?  
"Uhh, yeah… who is this?" Koen said, wanting to find out who it was that was calling him.

"Nevermind," The man said sternly, "I know what you and your friend Marshall do, and I've called to ask something of you two."

Koen sighed deeply, not really sure how to respond to this. "Look, we don't really do-" He began to say.

"Twenty grand," The man on the ECHO device interrupted him, "If you off just one person for me."

Koen considered this, twenty grand was a hell of a lot of money, he wondered what he could do with that much money. Then he thought about what he was doing it for, this was the first time he had accepted something like this for himself, it was usually Marshall who did that. Koen waited a few seconds before replying.

"Who?" he asked.

"A man by the name of Charles Holloway," the man replied, "He's incredibly high up in Hyperion, lot of power. I want him dead for my own reasons, but I need someone else to do it."

Koen nodded slowly, even though the man couldn't see him, taking all of the information in. He half wished Marshall was here to take care of this call, but he wasn't, so Koen had to deal with this.

"Okay, so, uh, how do I find him?" Koen said questioningly.

"He is arriving on Eden-6 tomorrow for an urgent meeting of Hyperion. Kill him before or after he gets there, it doesn't matter." The man said.

"Can you be a bit more specific, where abouts?"

There was another pause over the ECHO device. "I'll tell you more when I know you're up for this, Koen."

Koen thought hearing his own name from someone he had never met was a bit weird. He wasn't one hundred per cent sure that he should be accepting this without Marshall around. Then he thought, what the hell, he was eighteen, he should be able to make decisions for himself.

"Sure, I'll do it," Koen said confidently.

* * *

Gaige stared out the window of her trans-planetary shuttle, her breath quickly condensing on the cold glass. She wondered how all this had happened. It was only yesterday that she was at home, working on Deathtrap in her workshop. That felt like a lifetime ago compared to now. She turned back and looked at the small, box shaped room that she was confined him. It didn't have much besides a few computer screens and seats running along each side.

Gaige was lucky to get a whole shuttle to herself on the long ride to Pandora. She was told it was going to take a good 10 hours at least. That was not going to be enjoyable, she thought. She decided she would try and do something to pass the time. She didn't really feel like working on Deathtrap at the moment, she probably couldn't even if she wanted to. She saw an ECHO device resting under one of the seats. She bent down and picked it up. She thought of the ECHO-casts she did for her subscribers. That felt like years ago aswell.

She thought she might as well do a follow up ECHO-cast to the science fair. Just to let her loyal subscribers know exactly what went down, although she assumed they already knew.

She pressed the record button on the side of the device and began her ECHO-cast.

"Umm…." She began, her voice shaking slightly.


	11. Viva La Vida

**A/N: Right, so, here we are with Chapter 11, and I'm sorry to say it's a short one. Ah well, what can you do?**

**mika laylani: Thanks again! Yeah, I play Borderlands 2 quite a lot these days aswell and i'm always excited for new DLC because I get to play through more content!**

**JaiGrimWhisky: Thanks! Well, i'm going to have to end it at SOME point xD Trust me, I don't want this to end any more than you guys do.**

* * *

Koen decided he had spent enough time trapped in his thoughts. He slowly pulled himself back to reality. He stood up and stretched away the stiffness. He looked around and found Gaige lying on the ground next to him. He wondered how long he had been sitting there absent-mindedly. He figured a few minutes, at least. Gaige hadn't gone near him, she assumed Koen needed some space for a while, while really, Koen wanted the complete opposite. He hated being on his own for any period of time.

Gaige lay flat on her back across the ground, her hands tucked behind her head and her eyes closed. She looked like she was asleep. Koen wanted to get moving so he thought it would be a good idea to wake her up. With a slight grin growing on his face, he crouched down over Gaige. He reached down and gently poked the side of Gaige's face. Her head tilted away from him slightly, but besides that nothing else happened. Koen resisted the urge to laugh, but he still had to wake her up. He gave up on the subtle approach and instead, gently shook her awake.

"Gaige, come on, wake up," He said quietly as Gaige's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him, a slight smile on her face. She seemed glad that Koen was back to his normal self.

"Oh, hey," she mumbled sleepily. She rolled over and pushed herself up off the ground. "So… sup?"

"Surprisingly little, actually," Koen replied. He had no idea what kind of answer she was expecting from that. "Well, I've noticed that it's getting pretty dark, so I wanna get to this place Overlook before it does."

"Fair enough," Gaige said, "Spending another night sleeping in the open is probably not the best idea ever. Actually, thinking about it, it would be a pretty bad idea."

Koen ran his eyes along Gaige's robotic arm. "You'd know all about bad ideas, wouldn't you?" He grinned.

Gaige glanced down at her metal arm. "Shut up," she snapped, before laughing slightly and raising the metal arm. "Or I might just have to bitch smack you with this thing, and trust me, that will hurt."

"You also don't strike me as the kind of person that bitch smacks people," Koen smiled back at her. "Anyway, let's get going."

"Kay then," Gaige said, "Overlook's not that far away from here. Less than 2 hours I'd say."

"Thank God," Koen sighed, as the two began walking, "I never thought I would get sick of walking."

Gaige smirked at this, happy that Koen was doing okay. "Hey Koen?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering, mind if I give the crossbow a try?" Gaige said. She had always taken in the crossbow from the first time she saw it. It was a strange preference to the guns that everybody else used and she wanted to see what was so great about it.

"The crossbow?" Koen asked, unclipping the crossbow from his back holding it out in front of him, "Well, okay then. But consider yourself lucky, I don't trust many people with this thing."

"Awesome!" Gaige squealed as Koen handed her the crossbow. She waved it around a little bit, trying to get a feel for it. It was quite light compared to most of the guns she carried. There was also a sense of precision about it, it _felt _accurate. "So, uh, what do I do now?"

Koen let out a quick laugh, "Well, first you're gonna need one of these," he said, pulling out an arrow with a yellow tip. "Ah, an explosive arrow, a personal favourite of mine. First, to arm it, you gotta pull that wire there back until it hooks around that little hitch there." He pointed out each part of the crossbow as he explained.

"Kay, I got this," Gaige grinned confidently, as she pulled back the wire until it clicked into place where it was supposed to.

"Good job," Koen smiled and handed her the explosive arrow. "Now, just put it into place there."

Gaige put the arrow where she guessed was the right place. It slotted in perfectly so she assumed she was right.

"And you're ready to fire, now all we need to do is find a… there!" Koen said, pointing out a stalker around twenty metres away from them, completely oblivious to what was about to happen. "See if you can blow that little bastard up."

Gaige raised the crossbow to her face and lined up the scope with the stalker in the distance. She felt a pair of arms close around her and hands clasp hers tight and push her arms up slightly.

"You're going to want to aim slightly above the target, arrows don't travel as fast as bullets, I'm afraid," Koen explained to her.

Gaige was amazed at how Koen was able to take this into consideration whenever he fired, that took some serious skill. He was probably much more proficient with the crossbow than he was with any gun.

"Looks like you're ready to shoot," Koen said, still holding onto her hands and keeping her aim steady. "Whenever you're ready."

After a second, Gaige pulled the triggers and the arrow sped away from her. She couldn't believe the lack of recoil from this thing. She watched as the arrow soared through the air, perfectly on target. The arrow connected with the stalker and exploded on impact. Once the smoke from the explosion had cleared, Gaige peered into the distance to see what was left of the stalker lying on the ground, missing various limbs. Gaige now saw why Koen liked this weapon so much. She had to get herself one of these.

"That was awesome!" Gaige exclaimed with happiness, as she let go of the crossbow, leaving Koen to take it and put it on his back.

"Pretty cool, right?" Koen grinned.

* * *

Maya, Axton, Salvador and Zer0 walked together in a group. They had been walking through the endless desert of the Dust for a few hours now, barely even communicating or stopping for a break. Axton walked slightly ahead of the group, while Maya, Salvador and Zer0 trailed slightly behind. Now everyone, not just Maya, was wary of Axton, he was extremely unpredictable.

The group was beginning to get tired and they needed a rest. Maya decided to ask Axton.

"Axton?" Maya called, "Mind if we all stop for a break for a minute?"

Axton stopped walking and stood with his back to the rest of the group. He sighed deeply before turning around. "Fine," he said flatly.

Maya and Salvador sat on the ground to rest their legs, while Zer0 remained standing, staying vigilant. Maya always wondered why Zer0 never took a break or anything like that. She remembered asking him once and he replied with something about how he could 'miss the challenge'. Maya didn't talk to Zer0 that much. It was difficult to hold a conversation with a person who only spoke haikus in a robotic voice.

Maya noticed that Axton was still standing exactly where he had stopped, with his arms folded, staring out into the distance. His mind was elsewhere and Maya could tell. Once again, Maya felt bad about bringing something like this on to Gaige, this was one thing the young girl was completely unprepared for, running away from the only people she could call friends on this hellhole.

Maya decided it was time to confront Axton about this, the Vault Hunters could not let this slide anymore, it had to be dealt with. Now, whether Axton was going to listen to them or not was an entirely different story, but it was worth a shot. Grunting, Maya stood up and walked over to Axton. She stopped beside him and stared out into the distance just like he did.

There was a few seconds of awkward silence, broken by Maya. She decided to be up front about all of this. "Axton, do you think we should just stop all this?" she asked.

"Stop what?" Axton replied, still not looking at Maya.

"Following Gaige like this, I mean, can't we just let her be? She'll be much safer the further away she is from us," Maya said.

Axton finally turned and looked at Maya, frowning slightly. "Maya, think about this. Gaige is far away from any family or friends she's ever had. She misses her family, I know that, she's missed them from the second she stepped on this planet. Did you notice how she looked up to me and you specifically? Who do you think she saw us as?"

Maya knew the answer that Axton was looking for, but said nothing.

"Once I realised how she saw us," Axton continued, "I took it upon myself to protect that girl with my life. So did you, just you probably weren't even aware of it. We may have fucked up badly towards the end, but we were always there for her when she needed us, and I don't intend to stop that now. So, are you with me or what?"

Maya now understood exactly where Axton was coming from. She saw just how right he was, about everything. The truth was, Gaige's death had affected her badly, but she tried not to show it. Maya felt tears coming and she bit her lip. Axton wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. Maya was slightly confused at this, considering Axton had been acting so weird these last few days. Maya couldn't help herself, she ended up sobbing quietly into Axton's torso. She felt Axton's hand rub her back gently.

"Don't worry, Maya, we'll find her," Axton whispered, "Even if it's just to see her one last time, or whatever. Now you just hold onto that, and let's get going."

* * *

"There it is!" Gaige shouted with excitement, "Overlook! Man, I never thought I'd be this happy to see this town."

The two had just exited out of a long tunnel that ran over a smooth, tarmac road. It was becoming dark quite fast. As Koen rounded the end of the tunnel, a small town came into view. The town was small enough. It rested on top of a small cliff. There were houses of different shapes and sizes built around the town. A large sign hung over the gate to the city that read 'Welcome to Overlook'.

As Koen and Gaige walked through the gates, Koen noticed a small building to his left. It caught his attention because of the lights that decorated the building. There was a big sign above it saying 'The Holy Spirits Bar'. Koen instantly smiled when he read this.

"Uh, is that a bar? Like, a bar bar?" Koen asked excitedly.

"Um, yeah…" Gaige said, not quite sure where Koen was going with this.

"You wouldn't happen to have any money on you, would you?" Koen said to Gaige.

"Yeah I got plenty, why?" Gaige replied.

A massive grin spread across Koen's face. It had been quite a while since he had any kind of alcoholic drink, and he thought one, or more, was in order, considering everything that had happened recently. Koen turned to Gaige, still grinning madly.

"You up for getting absolutely smashed?" Koen asked her.

"W-what?" Gaige asked in disbelief, "I'm only sixteen!"

"Gaige, if you're old enough to rip bandits to piece with guns on a regular basis, I'm pretty sure a drink wouldn't soil your mind or whatever," Koen laughed.

Gaige thought about this for a second. He was right. "Sure, whatever," Gaige shrugged.

"Yes!" Koen celebrated, "Let's go!" He grabbed Gaige's metal arm and sprinted towards the bar, laughing like a maniac. Soon Gaige was laughing aswell as they ran towards the bar together.

* * *

Koen was caught completely off guard by the incredible atmosphere inside the bar. As soon as he opened the door, he could hear some strangely catchy music coming from inside. After holding the door open for Gaige, he walked in after her. He entered into a tiny room with an open door that led into the main area of the bar. Koen looked around for a place to keep his stuff while he went to drink. He found a small door next to him and opened it. It led to a tiny closet that contained a brush and a load of empty shelves. He pulled off his backpack, quiver and crossbow and stuffed them into a corner, out of sight. He hoped to God nobody would look in here for any reason, that would be just his luck.

With that out of the way, him and Gaige walked through the door and into the bar. The interior of the bar was about what you would expect from seeing the outside. It was the people inside that interested Koen the most. He looked around at each person, every one looked pretty much the exact same, they all wore green and similar hats. They were about as Irish as a person could get.

"Is it just me or are these guys trying way too hard to show that they're Irish?" Koen said to Gaige.

Gaige giggled at his remark. "I know, right? They're all good people though."

Koen nodded slowly, "Right, lets do this thing," He smiled, as they began walking across the room towards where the counter and bar stools were.

The music continued to blast in the background. It wasn't coming from speakers or anything, it was being performed in the room somewhere. Koen looked around and soon found the source: two men sat in the corner of the room, surrounded by a group of people. One of the men was playing what looked like a violin, while another man was beating what looked like an oversized tambourine in time with his playing. The people surrounding them also clapped a steady beat along with the tune.

Gaige and Koen reached the bar and they each sat on two bar stools next to each other. A man walked up to them from behind the bar. He stopped in front of them and looked at them, smiling. He, like all the others, wore green, along with a green bowler hat. He had long, slicked back black hair.

"That's Mick Zaford, he runs this place," Gaige whispered to Koen.

Koen thought for a second. His mother had been half-Irish, and occasionally spoke Irish to him as he grew up. He barely understood it, in the extremely rare cases that she actually spoke it. But, she had taught him a few words, enough to have an incredibly brief conversation. If there was ever a time to test out what he remembered, it would be now.

"Hang on I got this…" Koen mumbled to himself, before saying to Mick confidently, "Dia duit!"

Mick tilted his head and frowned at Koen slightly, a completely confused look on his face. "You wha?" he said, before turning to Gaige, "Here, does he speak English or what?"

Koen facepalmed, burying his head in his hands. Were these guys Irish at all? They seemed more like a group of people who were just being what they _thought _being Irish was. Koen couldn't believe these guys.

"Nevermind," Koen sighed, "Just get us two, uhh…" he trailed off, looking to Gaige for assistance.

"Um, rakk ale?" Gaige said. Koen had no idea what that was, but anything that had the word 'ale' in it was usually pretty good. Most of the time, anyway.

"Yeah, that," Koen said.

Mick nodded and gave them both a smile as he prepared two large glasses of the dark brown liquid. Once he was done, he put the glasses in front of each of them. As soon as the glasses touched the counter, Gaige reached out and offered Mick a fistful of dollars.

"Hopefully it should cover this… and a bit more," She said.

A wide grin appeared on Mick's face as he quickly grabbed the cash from her hand. Koen had no idea how much Gaige had just paid him, but he guessed it was a lot. At that moment, Koen just wanted to get so much alcohol into him that he passed out. He picked up his glass and turned to Gaige. He nodded for Gaige to pick up her glass and she did so. Koen and Gaige smiled at each other as they raised their glasses up.

"Cheers!" They sang, and they clinked their glasses together and raised them to their lips.

* * *

**A/N: I simply couldn't leave the Zafords out of this story. I had to voice my opinion of them through Koen, namely, them sounding nothing like Irish people (I mean come on, really?). Stereotypes... XD**

**See you guys next time!**


	12. Limit Break

**A/N: Herro again! I think this chapter took slightly longer than usual, I'm not too sure. Anyway, I spent a lot of time these last few days planning out how I want to end this. There may be a few indicators as to how I want to do that in here.**

**Here we gooooooo!**

* * *

"Gaaaiiiiiigggeee!" Koen called drunkenly, looking around the room for his friend. As it turns out, Gaige had given quite a lot of money to Mick Zaford, so here they both were, six or seven huge glasses of rakk ale later, completely out of it. They were past the point of stopping, they just kept drinking even more and more.

"Whut?!" Gaige slurred back, raising her voice over the music and the sound of people, who were also drinking and having a good time. She stood up from the chair in front of a near-broken piano, which she suddenly decided she could play. Gaige too had a glass of rakk ale in her human hand. Initially, she wasn't too sure of the drink, but it's not like she cared anymore.

"Come meet muh new friend, eez sooo much cooler than you!" Koen shouted, gesturing to a man sitting in the seat next to him. The man wore heavy clothing, along with a mask that resembled the masks that the pyscho's wore.

Gaige stumbled over to where Koen was, and Koen put an arm around Gaige's shoulder, pulling her in and pointing to the man. "Gaige, meet Steve, Steve, Gaige," Koen said, still slurring his words as he introduced the two people to each other.

"Heyyyy," Gaige said slowly, bringing her metal hand up into a slight wave.

"Heyo!" Steve replied loudly and in an enthusiastic tone. Koen instantly burst out into uncontrollable laughter for no reason.

"Thiz guy!" Koen laughed, wiping tears out of his eyes.

Gaige raised her glass to take another drink. She managed to finish off the remaining rakk-ale. She slammed her glass down on the counter-top. "I demand MOAR!" she shouted. Mick Zaford saw this and smiled, as long as he was making money off this, he was happy. He filled another glass of rakk-ale and slid it across to Gaige. She grabbed the glass and lifted it up.

"Down it! Down it!" Koen chanted, wanting her to chug the whole glass for a laugh.

"Check thiz shit out!" Gaige said, as she brought the glass to her mouth. She leaned back and tilted the glass upward s the brown liquid flowed from the glass and into her mouth. She was surprisingly good at chugging, the whole glass was empty within the space of a few seconds. She raised the empty glass in the air triumphantly.

"Winnar!" She cheered, as her face lit up with pride. Suddenly, her face dropped and her eyelids closed over slowly. Then, still frozen in the same position, she toppled backwards onto the floor. She hit the ground with a loud _thud_. Upon seeing this, Koen bust out into a fresh round of laughter, along with everyone else who was around to see.

Koen stood up from his chair and managed to walk over to the passed out Gaige. "Helloooo?" he called, waving a hand in her face. He got no response at all, she wasn't getting up for a while.

Koen's thought process was nowhere near what it should have been, so he had no idea what he was doing this whole time. "I should probably do summin about this," he said, before turning around and looking back at Mick, "But fuck it, get me another!"

As Koen walked over to get his next round of rakk-ale, his vision slowly began to fade. He found it becoming increasingly difficult to walk the short distance. He stumbled left and right, it was pretty much impossible for him to walk straight at this point.

The last thing he saw before he blacked out completely, was the wooden floor of the bar coming rushing towards his face.

* * *

_The night the Vault Hunters arrived in Sanctuary_

Gaige sat on one of the beds inside the Crimson Raider HQ. She had been sitting here on her own for quite a while now, she couldn't tell exactly how long. She and the Vault Hunters had only been in the town of Sanctuary for a few hours, but that didn't stop the others from going over to the local bar for a drink. Gaige said she'd stay in the HQ, she figured she was a bit too young for drinking yet.

It had been one crazy day, starting out with a ride on a train that was rigged to blow, a long trek through a frozen tundra, and finally here, to Sanctuary, only to find that the only person that can help them has been captured by some crazy bandit known as The Firehawk.

Gaige was beginning to think she had made the wrong decision coming to this planet, even if she didn't have much of a choice. Anywhere was better than here. She had only been here a day and she was already caught up in somebody else's war. She probably would have just been safer back on Eden-5 than she would ever be here on Pandora.

At least the Vault Hunters she had met up with were nice enough. She got on well with two of them, Axton and Maya, while the other two, Zer0 and Salvador, Gaige thought, were a bit… weird.

Less than a day here and all Gaige wanted to do was just go home. She already missed her family and she hoped she wouldn't have to stay here any longer than she needed to. But since any form of transport was hard to come by on this planet, it seemed like she was going to be here for a while.

Gaige buried her face in her hands and sighed deeply. "FML," she said quietly.

Just at that moment, she heard the front door to the HQ open and she glanced up to see who it was. She saw Maya and Axton walk through the door, smiling and laughing.

"So I'm all like, what the hell are you gonna do with an apple and-" Axton said in between quick chuckles, but Maya stops him by putting a hand on his shoulder. Axton looked at Maya, who nodded towards Gaige.

Gaige saw this and looked back into her hands. As lonely as she felt at the time, she wasn't sure if she wanted to talk to anyone.

"Gaige, what's up?" Axton asked curiously, as both him and Maya walked over to Gaige.

Gaige slid her hands away from her face and rested her arms on her legs. She looked up at Maya and Axton. "Oh, nothing," She said, and she looked back down again.

"Yeah right," Axton said, smiling slightly, "Come on, what is it?"

Gaige pushed herself back on the bed and rested her back against the wall so she wouldn't have to keep looking up. With another sigh, Gaige decide she should at least explain to them what exactly was getting her down. "It's just that…" Gaige said, "I-I shouldn't be here, I mean, I've only been here a day and already I've killed more people than I care to count…"

Maya sat down on the edge of the bed, while Axton remained standing, his arms folded and a concerned look on his face. Gaige's eyes flicked between both of them.

"Come here," Maya said softly, gesturing with her hand for Gaige to come closer. Gaige wondered what Maya wanted, but she moved forward anyway, back into the same position Axton and Maya had found her in when they walked in. Maya reached out and put her arm around Gaige's shoulders and pulled her in. Gaige didn't really know what was happening, but she found herself going with it. She suddenly felt extremely tired and ended up resting her head on Maya's shoulder. Gaige noticed Axton raise an eyebrow at the scene.

"I can't imagine how you're feeling right now, Gaige," Maya began, "Getting dumped on a planet where it's kill or be killed is a scary situation for anyone to be in, especially someone so young like you."

Gaige sat silently, taking in all of what Maya was saying.

"And you know what," Maya continued, "You're right, you shouldn't be here, it's way too dangerous, but now that you are here, just know that you have friends that will do anything to keep you safe no matter what."

Maya looked down at Gaige and saw that she had slowly drifted into sleep while she was talking. Maya smiled at Axton, who smiled back at her. Maya carefully lifted Gaige's head off her shoulder and laid her out on the bed. Maya then stood up beside Axton, looking at Gaige.

"Poor girl…" Axton sighed, shaking his head.

"I know," Maya replied, "She doesn't deserve any of this."

Maya and Axton both stayed perfectly still for a few minutes, watching Gaige as she slept. Finally, Axton turned around and walked over to one of the other free beds in the room.

"I'm gonna catch some sleep," Axton said, "It's been a long ass day."

Maya turned away from Gaige and went to find another bed for herself, suddenly realising how tired she was. "Yeah, I guess I will too," Maya yawned, "Night Ax."

"Night."

* * *

Koen and Marshall sat at the broken, dusty table inside their 'house'. Various ammo types were strewn across the table as the two prepared themselves for a big mission. Tonight was the night, the night they were going to take out Charles Holloway. It had to be tonight, this was the only chance they were going to get.

Koen had ten arrows laid out in front of him, and he checked each one individually. He counted three electric arrows, two fire arrows, one corrosive arrow, and four regular arrows. Koen glanced over at Marshall, who was loading a clip into his Hyperion pistol. Hyperion may have been a corrupt mega corporation, but damn they knew how to make a good gun. Marshall's Maliwan SMG was out on the table as well, with seven clips of ammo lined up next to it. A silencer also lay next to the gun.

Marshall caught Koen's eye and smiled at him. "You ready for this?" he asked.

Koen was slightly nervous thinking about what was about to go down, but he tried to keep his mind in place. "Hopefully so, I think I've got enough ammo in case this goes to shit."

"Which it won't," Marshall reassured, "We sneak in, wipe this fucker out, sneak out, get paid, piece of cake."

"There's only one part of that plan that I like, I'll leave you to guess which part that is," Koen grinned at his friend. Koen grasped all of his arrows up and dropped them into his quiver. Just then, his ECHO device sounded, meaning he was getting another call. Koen had a feeling who it was going to be. The guy who had given them this job in the first place had been calling them often, giving them updates and things like that. Koen hit the button to answer and heard the man's familiar voice.

"You guys ready for this?" the man asked.

"As we'll ever be," Koen replied, putting his quiver on over his shoulders.

"Good," The man said, "You know the deal, you kill Charles for me, you get your money."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Koen said. This job had been the only thing on Koen's mind for the last few days, it was pretty big, after all. He often wondered who exactly Charles Holloway was, who the other man was and why he wanted Charles dead in the first place.

The man on the end of the ECHO device sighed. "Koen, I have to tell you something."

Koen and Marshall shared curious glances, "What?" Koen said.

"I've been doing a bit of digging into Charles Holloway, and found something about you. Well, about your parents actually."

Koen froze at the mention of his parents, as his mood instantly changed. Marshall noticed this and stood up from his chair, stepping towards his friend.

"Koen…" he tried, but Koen just raised a hand to him and went back to the ECHO device.

"What did you find?" Koen said quietly, and slightly angrily.

"Well," The voice on the ECHO began, "I know that your parents were killed in a fire at your house on Eden-6."

Koen touched the ECHO device against his forehead and closed his eyes. "You better be going somewhere with this," He mumbled.

"Let me finish," The man interrupted him, "The police wrote that incident off as an 'accident', but let me tell you, those cops are pretty much owned by Hyperion."

There was another sigh from the ECHO device, "Koen, did you ever wonder why your Dad was reasonably high up in Maliwan?"

Koen actually never thought about this. He knew his Dad worked for Maliwan, but not much else.

"Three years ago, he was given a mission to steal blueprints for a new Hyperion gun on behalf of Maliwan. He obtained them successfully and Maliwan began manufacturing the gun. But, Charles Holloway managed to find out what happened, and when he did, he gave the order to have you and your family killed."

_"Shit,"_ Marshall thought to himself, "_Why the hell did he tell him that?!"_

Koen began to tremble with sheer rage. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It made him angrier than Marshall had ever seen him before.

"Fuck!" Koen screamed as he threw the ECHO device. The device flew the air and hit the wall, smashing into pieces. After that, Koen grabbed his pack and crossbow and made for the door, fire in his eyes.

"Koen!" Marshall called after him, trying to get him to stop, but it was too late. Koen was already out the door and heading to where they would find Charles Holloway, hellbent on killing the man who had caused him so much pain.

"Dammit," Marshall muttered to himself, before quickly scooping all the ammo from the table into his backpack, grabbing his weapons and sprinting out the door after Koen.

* * *

Koen woke up feeling like he had been run over by a bus multiple times. Pretty much every part of him ached. As he came around, he became aware of even more aches and pains around him, none of which amounted to the horrible pain in his head. He moved his head slightly, causing a wave of nausea to shoot through him.

It took most of his strength just to open his eyes. When he did get them open, his vision was blurry. He blinked slowly a few times to try and clear the blurriness. After a few minutes, his vision had cleared and he could see where he was.

He was lying on the floor of the Holy Spirits bar, at least he remembered where he was, he had no idea how he ended up on the floor. He decided it was time to try and get up. Fighting through the aches and the nausea, he turned over and put his hands flat on the ground. He took a deep breath and pushed himself up slowly. He brought his legs forward and straightened them until he was standing up.

He grabbed onto a nearby table for support until he was sure he could walk fine. As he held onto the table, he looked around the room. There were only a few other people in the room. There were a few people sitting on their own at different tables, and Mick Zaford stood behind the bar as he always did. He then hit a realisation.

_"Gaige," _he thought suddenly, perking up slightly as he forgot about his hangover, _"Where is she?"_

He let go of the table and tried again to walk. He was much more successful this time around. He rubbed his face with his hand as he took his first few steps forward. It was then that he noticed Gaige lying on the ground only a few feet away from him. He smiled as little bits of last night came back to him. He remembered Gaige simply collapsing after having way too much to drink.

He crouched down next to her, put a hand on her shoulder and shook her awake. This was going to be funny.

Gaige's eyes slowly opened, she tilted her head to look up at Koen, then looked away and closed her eyes again. "Awww, man," she groaned and Koen couldn't help but laugh.

"It's not funny," Gaige whined, "I think I'm gonna die."

"You're fine," Koen said, "You could be in a much worse position right now."

"Whuh?"

"Never mind," Koen laughed, "Let's get you up."

Koen stood up and then offered his hand out to Gaige. She reached out to grab onto his hand with her metal hand, but missed. She tried again and this time their hands joined. Koen pulled back and Gaige rose back onto her feet.

As soon as she stood back up, she looked as though she was going to fall right back down. She was swaying slightly and Koen thought she was going to fall. He grabbed both of her arms and kept her steady.

Gaige was a mess, but Koen definitely was not going to mention that. For starters, she had lost her denim jacket, revealing her bright red t-shirt with a skull in the middle of it. Her red hair also hung down freely, no longer held up in two ponytails. He looked up and noticed that the two things she had used to keep her ponytails in place were gone. The black strap around her neck was also gone and her goggles hung in its place.

"You're missing some stuff," Koen noted, as she checked around her body to see what she was missing, "You wanna go look for them?"

"Screw it," Gaige said, adjusting her goggles back onto her head, "Let's just get out of here, this place smells weird."

Koen laughed again at this, "Well okay then," he said, and they both headed for the door.

"Are yiz off?" Mick called from behind the bar.

"Yeah," Koen said back across the room, "Thanks!"

"Ah sure no problem!"

Koen reached the door and put his hand on the handle. Just as he did, he heard Gaige cough from behind him. He turned around to see Gaige standing there, her arms folded and a slight smile on her face.

"Forgetting something, Koen?" she said.

Koen thought about what he could forgetting, he didn't own much except for his-

"Oh yeah," Koen said brightly, as he walked over to the closet where he had safely stored his stuff last night. He opened it and found his crossbow, backpack and quiver exactly where he had left them. He reached in and picked them up individually, putting each one on. Koen then turned around again to face Gaige. He really liked how her hair looked without the ponytails.

Gaige opened the door of the bar and they stepped out into fresh air. They both stopped and took a deep breath.

"Damn that's good," Gaige said.

"Yeah, air is pretty good," Koen smiled at her.

"Shut up," she said, "So I guess we're on our way again?"

"Guess so," Koen shrugged, "Providing we can both walk more than a mile before collapsing."

"It'll be fine," Gaige laughed.

Koen took a long look at Gaige. The more time he spent with Gaige, the more he realised how lucky he was that he had met her. He had never had any kind of girlfriend during his life. But, if they managed to make it off this planet, he wouldn't mind taking their friendship to the next level.

"I love your hair, by the way," Koen said, as he began walking.

Gaige was caught off guard by this. She ran her normal hand through her hair and down the side of her face. "Uhh, thanks," She beamed, grinning madly.

_"Damn,"_ she thought, watching Koen as he walked ahead, "_I so would."_

* * *

**A/N: Please review, it helps so much!**

**Thank you :D**


	13. Bonfire

**A/N: Hellooooo! Sorry this one took longer than usually, I've been really busy lately and didn't have much time. Anyway, here's a new chapter and I hope you enjoy!**

**Also, there's a poll on my profile relating to something in this chapter, so please go and answer it after reading this!**

* * *

"Hey Koen, wait up!" Gaige called, as she snapped out from her little trance caused by Koen's random yet meaningful compliment. She began to jog slightly to catch up with him. Koen looked back at her just as she reached him.

"Seems like you're still half asleep, Gaige," He remarked with a smile.

"No, no… I'm good, I think," Gaige said. As the pair walked away from the bar and further into the Highlands, Gaige tried to remember exactly what happened the night before. "What the hell happened last night? I remember walking into the bar, having a drink or two, then I woke up on the floor."

"Yeah, that happens," Koen laughed. "Anyway, what's on the list for today, besides more of what we usually do."

There had been a problem with their route that had plagued Gaige from the very start. She constantly thought about a way around it, and while they could have just taken a different route completely, that would have taken way too long, besides, she didn't feel like she had much time left.

Since the Arid Nexus was on an island off the coast, and the only way she knew how to get there was through the fast travel network, which was down, she needed an alternative way there. Her extremely vague plan was to get her hands on a buzzard and fly their way there. She figured she could fly a buzzard if she got the chance, but it was getting one that was the problem. They were in the Highlands, and the only place Gaige knew that was close and would definitely have a few buzzards was Thousand Cuts.

"Actually," Gaige said, "There's something I have to bring up."

"Um, yes?" Koen asked, frowning slightly.

"You see, the Arid Nexus is actually on an island, completely separate from this coast of Pandora," Gaige explained.

"Right," Koen said slowly, "I'm beginning to see the problem."

"Well, thanks to my unmatchable intelligence, it doesn't have to be a problem. You see, I have devised genius plan to get us over there easily enough. We're gonna get ourselves a buzzard."

"And a buzzard is…?" Koen trailed off, leaving Gaige to finish his sentence.

"It's like this, helicopter thingy, it doesn't matter, anyway, I know where we can get one, and it's not too far from where we are now."

"Great, let's do it then," said Koen.

"Uhh, it's not quite as simple as that. The buzzards will be in a place called Thousand Cuts, which is the territory owned by the bandit clan named the Slabs."

Koen sighed deeply and looked up, "Had a feeling there was going to be some sort of catch," he said.

"Welcome to Pandora," Gaige laughed, before stopping abruptly, "Woah, the last time I heard that, it was followed by a massive explosion that nearly killed me."

Koen looked at Gaige curiously, "What? Jesus, you've really been through it all, haven't you?" he smiled.

"Yep," Gaige replied, "Have you, by any chance, ever been shot? Like, without a shield? Cuz I can tell you right now, it sucks, big time."

"I'll take your word for it," Koen laughed, "So anyway, is Thousand Cuts this way anyway?"

"Yeah," Gaige confirmed.

There was something else that had been playing on Gaige's mind for a while now. She thought about bringing up quite a few times, but she could never find the right moment. She figured now was as good a time as any and went for it.

"Koen, there's something else I wanna talk to you about," Gaige said, and let out a long sigh, "Do you, like, want to talk about what happened yesterday, after we killed those stalkers."

Koen had seen this coming for a while now. He knew he wouldn't get away with it, that Gaige would eventually become too curious and just openly ask him. He still wasn't sure if he was ready to tell her or not. Besides, there wasn't much she could do about any of it. But, he might feel better talking about it with someone.

"Not really, but…" Koen replied, looking away from Gaige and into the distance.

"But?" Gaige said, grabbing onto Koen's arm with her normal hand.

Koen looked back at Gaige's hand and then at Gaige herself. The two stared at each other silently for a few seconds, until Koen broke the silence.

"Fine then, but it's not the greatest story in the world, or the happiest, for that matter," Koen warned.

* * *

"God dammit Koen, get back here!" Marshall shouted as he sprinted through the dark city streets. It was very late at night, and the only light came from the dim streetlights above them. Koen was only a few metres ahead of Marshall at this point. Marshall had chased him all the way from the house. Koen was heading straight for where Holloway was going to be, and there was no stopping him.

Marshall gave a burst of speed that brought him within grabbing distance of Koen. Once he was sure he could get him, Marshall dived at him. He tackled him and they both crashed to the ground. Before Koen could get up and run again, Marshall jumped on him and pinned his arms to the ground. Koen twisted and squirmed under Marshall's firm grasp.

"Fuck sake, let me go!" Koen screamed up at him, "I'm gonna kill that bastard for what he-"

"Yes!" Marshall shouted back, "We are, together! But you running in there now, guns blazing like I know you will, is going to get you killed!"

Marshall very slowly let go of Koen's arms and stood off him. Koen stopped moving around as soon as Marshall let go. Marshall stood back and Koen slowly got to his feet.

"And I won't let that happen, Koen," Marshall said quietly. "Now let's get moving, that meeting's gonna be over soon enough."

Marshall began to walk away of ahead of Koen, and all Koen could do was just watch. It was amazing how that guy could always find a way to get through to him, and that he was always there when Koen needed him. Marshall had lost just as much as Koen had, yet Marshall had always kept himself together.

After quickly checking that he still had everything, Koen followed after Marshall down the empty city streets, towards Holloway.

* * *

Koen and Marshall stood leaning against the wall of an alleyway between two tall buildings. They both had their eyes on the building on the opposite side of the street. The building they were watching looked very modern, with the most of the front of the building made of glass, along with a huge H that represented the Hyperion logo hung above the revolving doors. Charles Holloway was in that building somewhere, and they were just waiting to strike.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, Holloway pushed through the revolving doors, wearing an expensive looking suit and holding a large black suitcase. He entered out into the street, looked left and right quickly, and then followed the footpath to the left.

"Finally," Koen muttered, as he pulled his hood up over his face, "What's the plan?"

"You follow him along the path until you're in somewhere that's a bit less… open," Marhsall explained. He then pointed to another alley that was in between a small building and the Hyperion building that Holloway had just exited. "I'll go through there, and we'll catch him from both sides. And remember, if you get the shot, take it, but do it quietly."

"Got it, good luck," Koen said, as he saw Holloway go around a corner. Koen jogged out from the alley and towards the corner that Holloway had just walked around. Koen stopped and pressed his back to the wall. Slowly, he poked his head around the corner to get a look. He was just in time to see Holloway walk around another corner, and Koen guessed that it led to the back of the Hyperion building.

Koen waited a second after Holloway was out of sight until he started moving again. He ran along the short path towards the back of the building and stopped just before the corner. Again, he waited a second and looked around the corner. He saw Holloway not 5 metres away, walking away from him. They were in a parking lot that was empty except for a few cars dotted around the place.

Koen's mouth was dry and his heart was beating so hard he was sure it was audible. His breath was coming fast but he tried to control it so he didn't make too much noise. He watched as Holloway walked through the parking lot, towards one of the cars. Koen decided to act fast, and get him before he got into his car, which would complicate things. He stepped out from behind the corner and raised his crossbow, a regular arrow loaded. As much as he would have loved to set the bastard on fire or melt him with acid, he reasoned that this was the quietest and most efficient way to do things.

He looked through the crosshairs on the top of the crossbow and lined them up as best he could with Holloway. He took a long breath and held it as he prepared to take the shot. Koen's finger was on the trigger, ready to fire and end the man's pathetic life.

_"Payback, motherfu-"_

Before Koen could fire, he felt heavy hands grab him from behind and wrench him backwards. He tried to fight them, but they grip was too strong. Koen spun around to face his attacker. He saw two massive men, both wearing a Hyperion uniform. One of the men grabbed Koen's arm and twisted it backwards, making him drop the crossbow and cry out in pain. Then, the man locked his arms in Koen's and held Koen's arms behind his back.

Koen looked up as the other man cracked his knuckles, ready to beat the crap out of him. The man brought his arm back and launched an explosive punch straight into Koen's stomach. The punch winded Koen and he groaned in pain.

By this time, Holloway was aware of the noises behind him and walked back to have a look at what was going on. When he saw two Hyperion guards beating up a teenager, he didn't question it, he was sure they had their reasons.

The second man threw another punch at Koen, this time to the side of his face. Koen's head snapped to the side. Koen spat out blood and he heard Holloway laugh heartily. Koen looked up to see the man he hated most in the world. As soon as he saw him, Koen made a lunge for him, but was stopped by the Hyperion guard that held him in place.

"What's going on here, boys?" Holloway asked cockily, surveying the scene.

One of the Hyperion guards nodded at Koen's discarded crossbow. Holloway put two and two together and frowned at the teenager. Only one thing was on Koen's mind at the time: where the hell was Marshall?

"And who the hell are you?" Holloway said questioningly.

Koen continued to state at him as he considered his answer carefully. "I'll give you a hint," Koen growled threateningly, through gritted teeth. He inched himself forward slightly and stared into Holloway's eyes. "Connor Flynn."

Holloway's expression changed into a curious one for a second as Koen's words sank in. Then, Holloway cracked an evil grin.

"Ahhh," Holloway breathed knowingly, "So you're Flynn's boy, yes? That idiot who stole the plans for that Hyperion weapon and sold them to Maliwan?"

Upon hearing about his father referred to as an 'idiot', Koen completely lost it. He began screaming all kinds of abuse at Holloway, calling him every horrible name he could think of, while still trying to break away from the two Hyperion guards.

Just then, Koen head two rapid shots, followed not half a second later by another two rapid shots. Koen snapped his head around, looking for the source of the gunfire. As he did, he felt the grip around him loosen, he glanced up in time to see both of the Hyperion guards collapse backwards, their heads blown open and leaking corrosive acid. Koen jumped away from the two corpses and grabbed his crossbow. He took a step away from Holloway and aimed the crossbow at his face. Holloway's expression changed to one of terror and confusion.

Koen saw Marshall step out from a car behind Holloway, aiming his corrosive SMG at the man. They had him this time. Holloway spun around to see Marshall aiming at him from the other side. Holloway turned back around to face Koen, who kept perfectly still.

"So," Holloway sighed, "This is who Connor managed to raise, nothing more than a psychopathic killer. I always figured he'd-"

Koen was completely sick of Holloway at this point, so he ended it. He pulled the trigger of the crossbow, and before he knew it, there was an arrow buried in Charles Holloway's head. The arrow went straight between his eyes and through his head. The tip of the arrow poked out the back of his head, coated in red. Holloway's lifeless body collapsed to the ground, revealing Marshall standing behind him.

Nobody moved for a few seconds, until Marshall lowered his SMG and looked at Koen, "Good job," he said happily, "Now let's get out of here before-"

Just then, at least twenty more Hyperion guards, similar to the last two guys, came pouring into the parking lot, surrounding the two. The only difference with these guards was that they carried guns, and they all aimed them at the two teenagers.

"Oh, fuck," Marshall cursed, as he moved closer to Koen. There was no point trying to fight their way out of this one, they would be gunned down in seconds.

The guards continued to aim at them. Two guards stepped away from each other and another man stepped through the gap. This man looked like he was the head of these guards or something like that. The man looked down at Holloway's corpse, then back to the boys.

"What the hell happened here?!" the man demanded, facing Marshall.

Marshall didn't even bat an eyelid at the man. He kept his cool and said nothing at all. This only made the man even angrier. He stepped over to Marshall and squared up to him. "I said, what the hell happened here?!"

Again, Marshall showed no signs of being intimidated at all. This pushed the man a little too far. He raised his arm and swung a fist at Marshall. Lucky for Marshall though, the man was moving at a snail's pace. Marshall caught the man's fist in his hands and held it still, the man's arm trembling as he tried to force his hand forward. Marshall quickly thrust his head forward and head-butted the man in the face. The man stumbled backwards from the force of the blow, clutching on to his now broken nose.

"You just made a big mistake, you bastard," The man said threateningly, as he walked up to two of the guards. He whispered something in both of their ears, as he pointed at Marshall. He then walked on to another two guards and did the same thing, this time pointing at Koen. Marshall and Koen exchanged concerned glances as the wondered what was going to happen next.

The guards quickly grabbed the boys by the arms, as they were both pulled away in separate directions. They both struggled and fought against the guards, but it was pointless. Neither of them said a word as they were walked away. Koen managed to get a backwards glance, and he saw Marshall watching him as he was moved away, a sorry expression on his face.

That was the last time Koen ever saw Marshall.

* * *

"Jesus…" Gaige muttered, trying to find words to sum up all of what Koen had just told her, which was pretty much everything that had happened to Koen from the fire at his house to killing Charles Holloway. He'd had a horrible past and there was not much Gaige could say at that moment.

"Told you it wasn't a happy story…" Koen trailed off, noticing how Gaige was looking away and biting her lip, "Are you… crying?"

"No," she said, still not looking back at him, "It's just… you've been through so much, and now you're here. Nobody should have to go through all of that."

Koen was slightly confused by her reaction to this. He didn't know if the story genuinely was that depressing or she actually cared about him that much. He hoped it was the latter.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad. At least I had a friend every step of the way. Even here, I have you. And knowing that I have at least one person that gives a damn about me, that's enough for me."

Gaige was completely speechless from what Koen had just said. She stared at him for a while, just thinking. Gaige thought about how she had been traumatised when Deathtrap had killed Marcie and she had to leave Eden-5. Suddenly, that seemed like nothing compared to having your parents killed and having his only friend taken away from him, as well as being thrown off your home planet and sent here. Not to mention the psychological problems he had. He deserved so much better than that, and Gaige decided that, when they got back to Eden-5, she would do whatever she could do make sure he got the life he deserved.

Gaige also got the impression that she was the only person he was holding on to at the moment. Everyone else he had even been close to was either dead or missing.

Gaige couldn't think of any way to respond to his statement, she just stared into his eyes and stayed very still. Koen back at her as well for a few moments, until he gave her a quick grin and looked off to the side.

"Anyway," Koen said, "With that out of the way, I say we get going."

* * *

_The night before_

Maya lay flat across the warm desert sand, desperately trying to get some sleep. It had gone night time and the Vault Hunters were exhausted from travelling for most of the day. They literally had just stopped walking and tried to sleep in the middle of the desert.

Salvador and Zer0 lay less than a few metres away from Maya. Salvador was snoring quite loudly, and while Zer0 looked to be asleep, Maya knew he was just lying down to rest. He never slept. It was very dark, but not so dark that Maya couldn't see the others. Maya opened both of her eyes, giving up completely on sleep. With a grunt of frustration, she stood up. Maybe a quick walk would tire her out.

But, as soon as she stood up, she just about made out Axton standing a few metres away from everyone, with his back turned. Maya decided to go and talk to him. She slowly walked over to him, he didn't even notice her coming. Or if he did, he didn't do anything about it. Maya kept walking and stopped next to him, staring out into the same direction he was.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" Axton asked, glancing over at Maya.

"Yeah, too much on my mind," Maya replied, "And also, sand doesn't make the most comfortable bed ever."

Axton let out a slight chuckle, "No it does not."

After that, neither of them said anything for a while. Maya didn't know what to do or say at all. It was Maya who broke the silence. She had a question in her head that needed answering.

"Axton?" Maya said.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Why did you act the way you did when we thought Gaige died?" Maya asked. This may have been a step too far, but she was willing to take that risk.

"Had a feeling you'd ask me that eventually," Axton smirked, "I actually have no idea, it was really weird. I just wasn't in the mood for anything during those days. I guess I was drinking so much because I was trying to forget about what happened, guess that didn't work out too well."

Maya nodded in understanding, "Y'know, there were days when we thought we'd lost you as well. You weren't yourself at all and we were becoming worried. I didn't want to lose someone else…"

Axton turned around and faced Maya, "I'm here now, aren't I?" he said slowly, as he put an arm around Maya and pulled her in. Maya rested her head on Axton's shoulder and they stared out into the darkness of the night.

"I'm here now…"

* * *

"Finally," Gaige sighed, raising a finger and pointing towards what looked like the entrance to an encampment less than 100 feet away. "That's the entrance to Slab Town, I bet there's a buzzard in there somewhere."

The two kept walking until they were right in front of the gate. Koen looked through the gate and saw that the bandits had a small town set up here made up of metal shacks. There didn't seem to be anyone around, maybe this was going to be easier than they thought.

Suddenly, Koen saw a bandit stumble out from one of the shacks. He quickly stepped back out of sight. "Get back!" he whispered to Gaige, and they hid behind the wall on the right side of the entrance.

After a few tense seconds, Koen leaned out from the wall and looked back into the town. To his relief, the bandit had walked off in the other direction. A few metres ahead of them, there was a pile of crates. Koen turned back towards Gaige.

"Follow me," he said, and Gaige nodded in response. He quickly broke away from the wall and crouched down, moving towards the pile of crates. He glanced over his shoulder to see Gaige doing the same thing. They kept going until they were crouched behind the crates.

"Right, do you have any idea where we can find-" Koen was interrupted by what sounded like jet engines in the distance. He wondered what it was for a few seconds, until he saw Gaige smiling.

"That would be a buzzard," she said happily. She turned around, placed her hands on top of one of the crates and looked over it. She saw a buzzard flying through the sky towards them. This could be their best shot.

The buzzard slowed down the closer it came, until it ended up hanging in the air above them. The buzzard then began to slowly descend until it touched down gently around thirty feet away. Gaige watched as the bandit who was piloting the buzzard got out. The bandit began to walk in their direction. Gaige quickly got crouched back down behind the crates.

"Stay down!" Gaige whispered to Koen. They both stayed very still for a few seconds. They heard footsteps grow louder and louder, and could hear whistling coming from right next to them. Luck for them, the footsteps continued on and became quieter until they couldn't be heard any more. Again, Gaige looked out from behind the box, scanning the area around the buzzard. Gaige couldn't believe their luck, how a bandit had just left it here. She was thankful that bandits were such idiots.

"Now!" Gaige ordered, and they both sprinted out from their hiding place and towards the buzzard. Koen looked around for bandits as they ran, but didn't see any one else. They reached the buzzard and Gaige stopped in front of it, taking a look at it.

"Can you fly this thing?" Koen asked, and wondered why he hadn't asked that before.

"I think so, I got a long look at one of these once, so I picked up most of the controls." Gaige replied, as she hopped into the one seat on the buzzard.

"Hang on," Koen said, "There's only one seat, what do I do?"

"Just hang on to the side or something," Gaige said.

Before Koen could reply to this, the door to one of the nearby shacks swung open, and a bandit burst through, holding an assault rifle.

"Hey!" he shouted, "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Gaige, we gotta go!" Koen demanded, as he raised his crossbow and fired at the bandit. The arrow nailed the bandit straight between the eyes, killing him instantly. Unfortunately, the shouting had attracted a few more bandits in the area, and before Koen knew it, there were at least five bandits approaching them.

Koen heard the engine of the buzzard burst into life behind him.

"Get on!" Gaige shouted, as the bandits began firing. Gaige lowered herself further into the chair, keeping herself protected from the bullets. Koen, on the other hand, grabbed onto the side of the buzzard, standing on a piece of metal jutting out from the side.

Gaige looked to check he was ready, as flew around them, some even hitting the buzzard. Gaige began to press all the buttons that she guessed would make it take off. After flipping a few switches and pushing some more buttons, she pulled what looked like a joystick backwards, and the buzzard began to rise into the sky. Gaige kept the switch pulled back, until they were a safe distance away from the ground. She then pulled it to the right, making the buzzard spin 180 degrees.

Gaige began to laugh maniacally at what they had just done. "You alright back there?" she called to Koen, who was still clutching the side of the buzzard, trying his best not to look down.

"I'm hanging off the side of this stupid thing, more than a hundred feet off the ground, how do you think I am?!" he shouted back.

Gaige laughed even harder at his reaction, "Next stop, Arid Badlands!"

* * *

**A/N: So, the poll decided what happens to Marshall, so please go vote in it. And leave a review if you can!**

**See ya next time! :)**


	14. Fire In The Hole

**A/N: Well, hello again everybody and all that stuff. So, if you can't tell, I'm getting quite close to the end now, which is kinda sad really. **

**Also, I just wanna ask you guys to please, please review if you can from now on. It helps so much and it motivates me to keep going with this. If I don't get feedback, then I have no idea how you guys feel about the events of the story.**

**Anyway, that being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter. And don't forget, the poll is still open, so go vote if you want! :)**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

_4 years ago_

Connor and Alice Flynn sat in separate chairs in front of a large desk, looking anxious. The husband and wife kept sharing nervous glances as they waited. Behind the desk, sat a man in a white coat. He looked to be in his fifties. He had grey hair and his face always seemed to show signs of exhaustion, no matter when Connor and Alice talked to him.

They knew him as Dr. Gartner. He was an expert in psychology, he knew almost all there was to know about the human brain. But today, Connor and Alice were here for a specific reason.

The doctor very slowly took a seat in the chair behind the desk, opened one of the drawers in the desk, and pulled out a brown folder containing multiple sheets of paper. He placed the folder in front of him on the desk and opened it.

"So," Dr. Gartner began, "We have the results of the test your son took a few days ago."

The doctor's eyes flicked between each of them as he said this. Alice bit her lip, while Connor kept a completely blank expression.

"Well?" Connor asked, preparing himself for the answer, whatever it was going to be.

Dr. Gartner sighed deeply and opened the folder. His eyes scanned over the first page, then he closed it and looked back up at the couple. "Mr. Flynn, I'm sorry, but your son does have dementia, and a rather rare and dangerous case of it at that," he said sadly.

On hearing this, Connor stared at the man for a few seconds, before throwing his head back and looking up at the ceiling. "Fuck…" Connor breathed, not wanting to believe what he had just heard.

"Fuck!" he repeated, shouting this time and erupting out of his chair. He made his way over to the desk, slammed both his hands down on the desk and looked down at the ground.

Alice covered her mouth with her hand and tried to keep herself together. She knew this was not going to go down well with Connor, and she knew why as well.

"Again, I'm sorry Mr. Flynn, but it's down to genetics, there's really not much we can do for him," the doctor said.

This seemed to only anger Connor even further, he slowly raised his head and glared straight at the doctor, as if he was to blame for this.

"Dr. Gartner," Connor said through gritted teeth, "Do you know what dementia does to a person?"

"Yes," Dr. Gartner replied, "I am fully aware of the effects and also the-"

"Oh I don't think you are," Connor interrupted, "It's a lot more than what you read in your damn books-"

"Connor!" Alice yelled, trying to calm her husband down, "Leave him alone, it's not his fault!"

"-you see, what it does is destroy your whole mind. It breaks it down piece by piece until there's nothing left. I know this because I've been there myself, Dr. Gartner, and all I can say is, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

Connor then turned his back on the doctor and headed for the door. Nobody said anything else as Connor stormed out of the room. Alice shut her eyes as she heard the door slam hard behind her. The doctor and Alice sat in silence for a few seconds, until she stood up to follow her husband out.

Just as she reached the door, she glanced back at the doctor. He was staring wide eyed at the door that Connor had just walked out of. He had nothing to say at all.

"Sorry about Connor…" Alice muttered quietly, and then opened the door and walked through.

* * *

Maya, Axton, Zer0 and Salvador all walked through the gates of Overlook. They had only slept for a short while, woken up very early in the morning, and made it through the Highlands before the afternoon. They decided to stop in Overlook, mainly for a break, but also to see if they could find out anything else about where Gaige was.

"Where do we first?" Maya asked as she stopped walking.

"Uhh, guess we'll try the Holy Spirits Bar, it's closest," Axton suggested.

With that, the group headed over to the bar. When they reached it, Axton pushed the door open and held it open for everyone else. When everyone was through, he followed them inside. The bar was quiet, probably because of how early it was in the morning. A few people milled around the place and a few more sat at tables or on chairs.

With a sigh, Axton began to walk across the room, towards the bar. Maya looked back at Zer0 and Salvador. Zer0, as always, showed no emotion at all, and Salvador just shrugged. Maya decided to follow Axton over to the bar. She saw Mick Zaford standing behind it, cleaning a glass. Maya and Axton sat down at the bar and Mick Zaford look up at them, smiling.

"Howiya Vault Hunters!" he said exuberantly, "Can I get ye anything?"

Axton grinned slightly at the man, "Nah we're fine, thanks. I actually want to ask you something, about a friend."

"Sure, go ahead," Mick said.

"Well, I was wondering if you had seen girl pass through here recently. She's young, she has red hair, metal arm, you can't really miss her."

Mick looked down, frowning slightly, until his face suddenly lit back up and he grinned at Axton. "Ah yeah! I know who you're on about, little red-head girl, was in hear last night with someone. Jaysus, they drank more alcohol than you'd believe!" he boomed, before breaking into a hearty laugh.

Axton and Maya looked at each other as the man laughed, their eyes wide.

"Do you know where she is now?" Axton asked, once Mick has finished laughing.

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that one, lad. The two of them spent the whole night here and then left only this morning."

Axton couldn't believe that after all this time, they were getting close to Gaige. He still wanted to hurry and see her before she left, though.

"Right, thanks for the help," Axton said, and he got off his chair and walked away. Maya nodded at Mick and then walked way as well. The two made their way across the room back to Zer0 and Salvador.

As they got closer to Zer0 and Salvador, Axton noticed a bluish-grey piece of clothing in Zer0's outstretched arm. As he got closer, he realised what it was. Axton grabbed it from Zer0 and held it out in front of him. It took Axton only a second to recognise it. It was Gaige's denim jacket.

Maya and Axton looked at each other for a few seconds, before Axton reached out and grabbed the jacket. Zer0 then folded his arms and looked at Axton. Axton opened the jacket and held it out, looking at every inch of it.

"Why would she leave this behind?" Axton asked to nobody in particular.

"No idea, but you heard Mick Zaford, she only left this morning, I say we pick up the pace and get to the Arid Nexus," Maya said.

"Yeah I'm all up for that, but, how do we get to the Arid Nexus? I mean, the Fast travels are down, and the only way to get there by waking is through the Eridium Blight, which is the complete opposite direction," Axton noted.

Maya thought about this for a second, "Gaige must have come this way for a reason, you sure there's no other way to get to the Nexus?" she replied.

"Unless she can get her hands on a-" Axton stopped himself and grinned widely, "Buzzard. She's going to Thousand Cuts to take one and fly over. Crazy kid."

"We should probably talk to Brick then," Maya suggested, pulling out her ECHO device, "Ask him if he's seen anything."

"Fair enough," Axton shrugged, as Maya called Brick.

Maya held up the ECHO device and waited a few seconds as it connected to Brick' ECHO. Eventually, Brick answered and his booming voice sounded through the device.

"Maya?" Brick called loudly, "What's up? I'm a bit busy right now."

"Really?" Maya questioned, "What's going on over there."

"Well," Brick said, "According to my slabs, some jackasses just came over here and stole one of our buzzards."

Maya and Axton exchanged anxious glances, knowing exactly who it was that had stolen the buzzard. Axton then nodded at the ECHO device, wanting Maya to say something.

"Uhh… yeah, we know who stole the buzzard, we think, and we know where they're going," Maya explained.

"You do?" Brick nearly shouted, "Then who the hell is it?"

"Never mind," Maya replied, "Look, Brick, we can go after this person for you, but we're gonna need a few buzzards, I can explain later."

There was a long silence from the EHCO device as Brick considered this. "Okay," he said finally, "Come over to Thousand Cuts and I'll fix you guys up with some buzzards. Don't worry, I'll let my boys know you're coming."

"Thanks Brick," Maya said happily, and hung up the ECHO device. She looked over at Axton, who was still holding Gaige's jacket.

"You guys ready?" Maya asked, and the group all nodded in response. They all turned to walk out the door of the bar. Axton trailed slightly behind. As he walked, he dropped the jacket and let it fall to the ground, leaving it on the floor of the bar.

* * *

"Gaige!" Koen shouted over the noise of the wind and the engines of the buzzard, "How much longer? My arms are getting tired!"

They had been flying for around 20 minutes now, and Koen had been grabbing onto the side for the whole time, his feet pressed against a piece of metal that stuck out from the side of the buzzard. They were now flying over what looked like a desert, but had various machines, pipes, and pools of purple liquid scattered around the place.

"Will you stop complaining?" Gaige shouted back, breaking into another round of laughter. Koen thought she was getting a little too much enjoyment out of piloting a buzzard. "We're nearly there! I'm trying to get us as close to the launch facility as possible!"

"In this thing?! I hope you know what you're doing!"

Gaige only let out another maniacal laugh, "I can see the facility in the distance! I'm slowing the buzzard down, hold on!"

Koen felt the buzzard rapidly drop speed and then gain its speed again within a second. The sudden movement threw him forward, making him lose his grip on the buzzard. His hand slipped from the piece of metal and he felt himself fall backwards. He desperately flailed his arms trying to find something to hold on to. At the very last second, he just about managed to grab on to the piece of metal he was standing on moments ago. He now dangled from the very bottom of the buzzard, nothing between him and the ground below.

"Gaige! What the fuck was that?!" Koen shouted upwards, but got no reply. He glanced downwards to see that they were closer to the ground than he though. They looked to only be around 10 metres off the ground, and getting lower. They were slowing down significantly, but Koen didn't think they were going slow enough.

"Slow this thing down! Now!" Koen screamed even louder this time, and Gaige heard him.

"I'm trying!" she replied.

The ground became closer and closer as they continued to slow down gradually. Soon enough, Koen's legs were only about three metres off the ground.

"Gaige, jump!"

Koen let go of the buzzard and let himself fall. He hit the ground hard within a second. He maintained his momentum and went flying along the ground, smashing into it as he rolled through the dust. He eventually came to a halt and looked up. He was just in time to see Gaige make a rather impressive dive out of the cockpit of the buzzard. He heard her scream as she flew through the air and hit the ground.

Koen quickly pulled himself to his feet, ignoring the pain he was feeling pretty much everywhere. As he stumbled over to where Gaige landed, he saw the buzzard spiral out of control in the distance, crashing into a tree and exploding into a huge fireball. Koen ignored the explosion and continued on towards Gaige. She was lying next to a huge, metal wall with the Hyperion logo pained on it.

"Oh no…" Koen breathed, as he got close to Gaige. She was lying on her back, not moving. Koen knelt down beside her and let out a sigh of relief as he noticed that she was still breathing. It looked like she was just knocked out. Gaige seemed to have been a lot less lucky than Koen was, there was a large smear of blood on her forehead that stained some of her hair.

Koen knew he had to get her somewhere safe until she woke up. But, just as he reached down to grab her, he heard heavy footsteps coming from behind him. He quickly spun around just in time to see a man, dressed in Hyperion uniform, smack him straight in the face with his rifle. Koen couldn't even register what had happened before he was knocked out cold.

* * *

Koen very slowly came to his senses, he couldn't feel much, but he was aware of an immense pain in his head. He struggled to get his eyes open, but he eventually managed and took in his surroundings. He was in a large room with metal walls running along the side. He looked up to see a bright light on the roof shining down into his eyes.

As he regained feeling in the rest of his body, he noticed he was sitting down in a chair. He tried to get up, but found that he was tied down tight into the chair. His hands arms were held behind his back and his hands were tied. After a few seconds of struggling, a man wearing a Hyperion uniform walked in front of him from behind. He looked like he was part of the Hyperion military, but was really high up.

"How nice of you to join us," The man said cockily, smiling down at Koen.

"Who the hell are you? Where am I?" Koen asked angrily, not liking the situation he was in at all.

"Well," The man said, "Since you asked so nicely, I'm Commander Lockheart, but, what's more important is who you are."

Koen said nothing, he instead just glared up at the commander. Then, he heard a beeping noise coming from the other side of the room. On hearing this, the commander walked over to a table and picked up a small holographic screen and scanned his eyes over it. After a few seconds, the commander looked back at Koen, still holding the screen and reading it.

"So…" Lockheart began, "Your name is Koen Flynn… never heard of you. Let's see what else I got here…"

Koen made another attempt to break out of the chair, but had the same result as last time.

"Right," the commander continued, "Lived on Eden-6… parents are… both dead, how unfortunate."

"Fuck you," Koen chimed in, making Lockheart glance up from his screen for a second.

"There is really not much about you… oh wait, what's this? Oh, your medical files, Jesus there's a lot of them."

Lockheart continued to read from his screen for a few more seconds, a frown growing on his face. When he was finished, he looked back at Koen.

"Wow, you are one messed up kid," Lockheart said, shaking his head slightly.

Koen ignored the commander's teasing, as he realised that Gaige was most likely here too.

"Where's Gaige?" Koen asked threateningly.

"Gaige?" Lockheart replied, "Oh, you mean that girl that was with you? The one that the group of soldiers brought in and are now torturing mercilessly?"

Koen heart suddenly began to race, he refused to believe the soldiers were doing that to Gaige. He'd kill them all if he got the chance.

"You're lying," Koen said through gritted teeth.

"Whatever you want to believe," the commander shrugged, before walking over to another screen on the wall. "Actually, why don't you take a look for yourself."

Koen didn't want to watch at all, but found he couldn't take his eyes off the screen as Lockheart turned it on. He screen flicked on and it displayed grainy CCTV footage of a room similar to the one Koen was in right now. The only difference was, there was nobody in the room except for a person. from what Koen could see wasn't Gaige, lying on the floor, not moving.

"What the…?" The commander frowned, before glaring back at Koen.

Lockheart began to march over to Koen, but just as he did, Koen heard three loud gunshots. Three holes were blown in the commander, two in the chest and one in the head. The commander collapsed forwards onto the ground, dead.

Koen looked up at the door to find out who his saviour was. When he saw who it was however, Koen was once again filled with anger. There, standing in the doorway, holding a smoking pistol, was his father.

Koen struggled to find words to say as he watched his father enter the room and walk over to him.

"No!" Koen shouted, "Get away from me! Leave me alone!"

His father only grinned madly down at him, as he walked straight past him and around to the back of the chair.

"What the hell do you want?! Why won't you just go away!" Koen continued to shout, tears almost forming in his eyes.

Strangely, Koen felt the ropes that were tied around his wrists loosen, until they slid cleanly off his hands. His father then walked back around in front of Koen, not even looking at him. His father crouched down and undid the ropes around Koen's ankles.

Koen looked curiously up at his father for a few seconds, before slowly getting to his feet. Just as he stood up, he heard a click and looked at his father. His father now held a gun out in front of him, aimed at Koen's head.

"Now," his father said happily, "Time to die."

* * *

**A/N: O_O Review, please? **


	15. Don't You Worry, Child

**A/N: I'm gonna start by saying: sorry! I have no idea why this took so long, but it did. Anyway, just enjoy it now that it's finally done. This is pretty much the main point, if you could even call it that. I have... no idea how you guys are going to react to this, but i hope you enjoy :D**

**Graystrype: Glad you like it! :)**

**Cellshoes: No, YOU'RE so cool!**

**Commander Hammer: O_O Let's just take a deep breath...**

**scottusa1: Aint you never seen Arrow?! (yeah, that's a bow and arrow but, whatever :P) **

* * *

"W-what?" Koen asked, his voice trembling as he stared into the barrel of the gun. He still couldn't comprehend what was happening. What the hell was going on?

"You heard me," his father replied, not taking the gun away from his son's head, ready to fire at any moment.

At that moment, Koen lost it completely. His brain was simply unable to separate what was real from what wasn't. A splitting headache began to develop inside his head and only got worse. His vision began to flash red randomly, as he caught glimpses of his past.

His parents, his house and Marshall all flashed through his mind at random. Koen tried to shut his eyes to block out the crazy visions, but he could still see them. Suddenly, the image of Gaige flashed up. She was lying on the ground beneath him, with a crossbow pointed in her face. Koen's eyes shot open as he tried to shake away what he was seeing. He grabbed his head and looked around, his breath coming rapidly.

The images stopped appearing, but his vision still flashed red every few seconds and his father still stood in front of him, giving Koen the same terrifying stare. Koen was holding back tears the entire time. It was hard enough to go through the things he had without his own father abusing him at every corner. His father had been so nice to him when he was alive, So Koen had to wonder what was going on.

Koen had had enough. Of everything. He just wanted this to be over.

Koen slowly raised both of his hands and grasped the pistol slowly. His father stayed perfectly still. Koen closed both his hands around the barrel of the gun and leaned his head forward until his forehead touched the muzzle of the gun.

"Come on then, I'm right here. Do it," Koen growled, looking into his father's eyes. Koen noticed his father very slowly begin to squeeze the trigger. This was it. Koen shut his eyes and waited.

"I'm sorry, Gaige," He mumbled quietly.

Koen waited a few more seconds, but still nothing happened. Suddenly, he felt the pistol move away from his head and rough hands grasp his arms. Koen opened his eyes and stared into the face of a completely different man. This man had dark green eyes, a rough looking face with what looked like a military rank just above his left eyebrow. He also had fair, spiked up hair. Koen had no idea who this guy was, but he guessed he was about to find out.

The man gave Koen a hard shove and sent him stumbling backwards into the wall. Before Koen could react, the man was on him again, pressing his shoulders into the wall. The man got right up in Koen's face as Koen tried to break away. The man kept Koen held back tight.

"Who are you?!" Koen shouted.

"Hey! I'll be asking the damn questions here!" The man yelled back.

Koen tried once again to break free. He brought his leg up and kneed the man in the stomach, causing him to buckle slightly from the blow. This only served to anger the man even further. The man pressed his arm against Koen's neck, raised a hand and punched Koen across the face. Koen's head snapped to the side from the hit and he prepared himself for more, but none came. Koen looked back at the man to see he was still looking furious.

"Look," The man said sternly, "My name is Axton. I know who you are, you're the person who has been with Gaige this whole time, right?"

Koen was finding it hard to speak because Axton's arm was still pressed against his neck.

"Wha- yes! Yes I am!" Koen managed to choke out. Then he realised, Axton. He realised who Axton was now, he was one of the Vault Hunters that Gaige had been with. They must have finally caught up with them.

"Well, you don't even look like you can handle yourself!" Axton shouted, "What the hell is wrong with you?! Who were you talking to?!"

Koen didn't want to talk about it, he didn't have to explain himself to anyone. "It doesn't matter," Koen muttered, "Where's Gaige now?"

Axton lowered his arms and took a step back, "Me and the others split up, they went to get Gaige, and I came here to save your ass," Axton said.

"Well let's get going then," Koen said, as he walked away from Axton. He noticed his crossbow and other things piled in the corner of the room and he went to get them.

Axton stared at Koen as he walked past, thinking to himself. Axton had no idea about what Koen had been through and what had happened with him and Gaige while on Pandora. Still, Axton thought Koen looked like he could handle himself, and he _had_ done a good job of keeping Gaige safe until now.

"You know," Axton sighed, "There was a time when I wanted you dead. I thought you were just taking Gaige from us."

That made Koen stop what he was doing, and glance back at Axton, before returning to his things. He pulled his backpack and other things on and turned back towards Axton.

"But now, I know that you were just keeping her safe," Axton continued. Just as Koen walked up to Axton, Axton gently put a hand on Koen's shoulder, "I'm trusting you to keep that girl safe. And that means forgetting about whatever weird shit you got going on inside your head, for her. Her life is in your hands now. Do not fuck this up."

Koen took a long look at Axton, before nodding slowly. "I won't let anything happen to her. But, about helping myself…" Koen continued to stare at Axton, their eyes locked, "But if something happens, and I don't make it, you promise _me_ that Gaige gets out of here."

"You're _both _getting out of here," Axton replied, with a slight smile.

Koen returned the smile, gave Axton a quick pat on the back, and walked towards the door. Just before he reached it, he heard Axton call after him, making Koen stop and glance over his shoulder.

"Hey, what's your name?" Axton called.

"Koen, Koen Flynn." He replied, as he continued walking towards the door.

* * *

Unlike Koen, Gaige woke with a start, suddenly snapping to her senses. Like Koen, however, she found she was tied to a chair. She couldn't believe that they had been captured twice in two days. She was kind of getting sick of it at this point, getting captured and tied up sucked.

She looked up to see a female Hyperion officer standing over Gaige. The woman had brown, tied back hair and a stern face. She stood with her hands behind her back as she glared down at Gaige. Neither of them said anything so there was an awkward silence for a few seconds.

"Umm… hi?" Gaige said quietly, but got no reply. The woman continued to glare down at Gaige. It was then that Gaige noticed a nametag that read 'Walker' that was stitched onto the shoulder of the woman's uniform. Gaige just assumed her second name was Walker.

"Hola?" Gaige tried again. That was quite hopeful of her, Gaige thought. There was another silence as Walker continued to stare down at Gaige.

"Since I don't really feel like beating the crap out of a teenage girl, you'd better tell me who you are and why you're here," Walker said finally, "Though I will hit you if you push me, so I don't recommend it."

Gaige decided the best thing to do right now would be to stall for time, it was pretty much her only option now. If she ever got a chance, she would change it so that she didn't have to raise her damn arm every time to summon Deathtrap, it was quite a coding defect on her part.

"Well," Gaige began with a slight grin, "First of all, how do you _not _know who I am? I mean, hello? Mechromancer? Ringin' any bells?"

"Shut up," Walker snapped, losing her patience already, but Gaige kept going.

"I'm kind of a big deal on the ECHOnet-"

"I said shut up!"

Gaige laughed away her threat. "Ninety thousand ECHOcast subscribers? How is none of this even-"

That was enough to make Walker completely lose her temper, she quickly raised her right hand and slapped Gaige hard in the face. This caught Gaige off guard and the whole right side of her face stung, but she'd been through worse.

"I'll ask you again, and this time you better give me a damn straight answer, who are you? We're only going to find out eventually anyway, so you might as well tell me," Walker said.

"I just had a great idea!" Gaige said brightly, "How about I don't do that, and I tell you to go and screw yourself instead! Sound good?"

"Have it your way then," Walker snarled, and raised her hand again. Gaige saw it coming so she could have at least prepare herself this time. Walker slapped Gaige again on the right side of the face, and then instantly followed up with a slap to the left side.

That one hurt more. Gaige looked down and felt tears coming, mostly out of pain. She tried to push the tears back but she couldn't. Then, Walker grabbed Gaige by the hair and yanked her head up.

"Oh, don't cry," Walker said, breaking out into an evil grin, "We're just getting started here."

Gaige got the feeling again. The same feeling she got when she was being held on the airship with Skye. Damn, that felt so long ago. It was the feeling of being scared and completely isolated, like there was nobody coming to help her.

Gaige had been saved from that situation with Skye last time, but she wondered if her luck would stretch this far. She had no idea what to do.

Walker raised her hand again, intending to hit Gaige. Gaige shut her eyes, bit her lip and braced herself. Suddenly, Gaige heard a familiar whooshing noise, followed by a light hum, and then finally two gunshots. Gaige opened her eyes to see the dead body of Walker floating in the air above her, surrounded by a purple ball of energy. The purple ball disappeared and Walker's body slumped to the ground, dead.

Gaige looked towards the door and she saw one of the most comforting sights ever: Maya, Salvador and Zer0 walking through the door, all holding various weapons. Maya stopped and grinned when she saw Gaige. Gaige, on the other hand, just stared back, wide-eyed, unable to comprehend how happy she was to see Maya and the others again. Gaige heard a sword unsheathe behind her and she rolled her head back behind the chair. She looked upside-down at Zer0 who raised his sword and cut through the tough ropes around her hands. A bright red **':)' **appeared from Zer0's visor, and Gaige returned the smile.

Once her hands were free, she slowly got to her feet and looked at each person individually. Zer0 stood behind her with his arms folded, the smiley face still glowing on his helmet. Salvador stood a few feet away from Maya, his thumbs hooked in his front pockets. He smiled and nodded at Gaige when she looked at him, and she smiled back.

Then she looked over at Maya, who was standing just in front of the door, her arms hanging by her side. She forgot about everything that had happened between them since she left, and this moment made her regret leaving in the first place. Gaige was absolutely delighted to see her.

Gaige ran over and wrapped her arms around Maya. Maya pulled Gaige in and returned the hug. They kept hugging for a few seconds, both of them trying not to cry.

"Maya…" Gaige sighed, "I-"

"Shhhh," Maya whispered, "It doesn't matter what happened since you left, all that matters is you're safe."

Maya then gently pulled Gaige away and held her by the shoulders at arm's length.

"We're gonna get you out of here, Gaige," Maya said, smiling.

Gaige grinned as she looked up at the older woman, until she remembered something that made her face drop slightly.

"Wait a minute, where's Koen?" Gaige asked anxiously.

"Who- Oh, I take it that's your friend," Maya said, "Well we watched for a while and saw where the guards took him. So, Axton went to get him and we came for you."

Gaige didn't like the sound of that. She always assumed there would be some friction between Koen and Axton. Hell, if Axton was alone with him, shit was probably going down with them over there, providing they hadn't half killed each other already.

"Axton's here too?" Gaige said.

"Course of he is," Maya shrugged, "You think he would turn down the offer of seeing you again?"

Having all the Vault Hunters caring about her this much gave Gaige a sense of being wanted and belonging. Too bad she was going to have to throw that all away when she left here. Though, she had found something else to hold on to. Some_one _else.

"Well, let's go find Axton and Koen then," Gaige said, as she gently brushed Maya's hands off her shoulders.

"You heard her, guys," Maya said to Zer0 and Salvador, and they all headed for the door, "Wait, Gaige, I have something for you."

Gaige stopped and looked back as Maya held out her arm. A shiny blue SMG digistructed into her hands and she passed it over to Gaige. Gaige grabbed it and smiled down at the gun.

"I know you like your shock weapons," Maya smiled.

"Shock?" Gaige asked, "Aww, snap!"

It had been a while since Gaige had held a decent weapon, not counting Koen's crossbow. It felt good to once again hold a weapon that could rip most things to shreds.

"Let's do this thing!" Gaige laughed, jumping up and down with excitement.

Maya couldn't help but laugh at the girl's eagerness. Seeing her like this only showed Maya how much she actually missed the girl's crazy personality. It was good to have her back, even if it was only for a short time. After all this was done, Maya knew she could sleep easy knowing that Gaige would be safe.

* * *

Koen and Axton walked quickly through the compound, sticking to the shadows where they could. It was late at night, so there were very few Hyperion soldiers still out, but they were still there. Axton guessed most of them had retired to the barracks on the other side of the facility for the night. Yet they would rather do this as cleanly as possible, so Axton was thankful that they didn't run into any guards on their way back to the others.

"So… a crossbow, huh?" Axton said, trying to start some kind of conversation.

"Yup," Koen agreed, looking left and right for any Hyperion personnel. It wasn't that Koen didn't like Axton, it was more the fact that Axton had spent so much time wanting Koen dead before he even knew who he was. Sure, he trusted Axton enough now, but Koen was almost thankful that he didn't have to stay around him any longer than he needed to.

"So, what, you got like elemental arrows and stuff?" Axton asked.

"I do," Koen replied, still not looking at Axton. "They're-"

Suddenly, Koen's vision flashed red once again. His hands shot up to his head as an immense pain began to develop inside of his head. He closed his hands tight around his head and stumbled off to the side, groaning with the pain. He stumbled close to the metal wall next to him as he put a hand out to stop himself.

Once again, random images began to flash up. At first, he saw nothing but fire, but then it cleared to show Koen and his parents, smiling and laughing together. A loud ringing noise filled his ears that just about blocked out the sound of Axton calling his name. Koen felt a pair of hands grab onto his shoulders and keep him steady.

"Hey! Hey! You alright?" Axton called, genuinely worrying about Koen.

Eventually, the red haze cleared and the images stopped. The loud ringing began to decrease in volume until he couldn't hear it at all. When he was ready, he pushed himself away from the wall and looked back at Axton, who was frowning back at him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Axton asked.

"Long story," Koen replied, again keeping the details of his mental state to himself. "Let's just keep going."

The two began walking again in total silence. The sooner Koen got off this planet, the better. Meanwhile, Axton had no idea what was going on inside Koen's head, but he wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

Koen and Axton rounded a corner to see the others standing a few metres ahead of them, their backs turned to them. Koen matched the description Gaige had given him of the Vault Hunters with the people around her. He knew that the woman with the blue hair was called Maya, the short man with the huge muscles and crazy black hair was Salvador, and the tall man who wore a mask and suit, was Zer0.

"Hey! Look who I found," Axton said, a grin appearing on his face.

Gaige instantly spun around when she heard his voice. She looked sceptical for a second, until her face lit up and she ran over to Axton.

"Axton!" she called happily.

Axton held out his arms just before she reached him and he pulled her into a tight hug. They continued to hold on to each other, so Koen let them have their moment. He decided to walk over to the other Vault Hunters, he thought it was about time he met them.

Maya, Zer0 and Salvador all watched Koen as he walked away from Gaige and Axton and over to them. He stopped just in front of them and nodded to each person individually. Salvador and Zer0 both returned the nods but said nothing. It was Maya who spoke to him first.

"So I take it your Koen then?" Maya asked politely.

"That's me," Koen said, "Uhh, it's Maya, right?"

Maya let out a slight smile, "Yeah, how'd you know who I was?"

Koen laughed quickly, "Well, me and Gaige have spent quite a lot of time together. She told me pretty much everything that's happened to her."

"Yeah…" Maya sighed, "We thought we'd lost her for good. Axton was pretty messed up, hell, we all were, but not as bad as him."

Koen turned around and looked back at Axton, who had stopped hugging Gaige and was now talking to her, a wide grin on his face. Koen wished he had understood the Vault Hunters earlier. Gaige and Koen had spent all this time practically running away from them, he never once stopped to think about their motives.

When Axton and Gaige had finished talking, they walked back over to the others. Koen wondered what they were talking about, but decided not to ask.

"Right," Axton said, clapping his hands together and shifting his gaze between Gaige and Koen, "We passed a shuttle on the way in here with your names on it."

"Oh really?" Gaige said with a smile, "I would be pretty weirded out if it had 'Gaige Martin and Koen Flynn' written on the side."

"Okay, not quite," Axton admitted, "But we're taking it anyway."

"Hell yeah we are!" Gaige celebrated, before looking at Koen, "Right, Koen?"

Koen wiped a hand across his face and rubbed the side of his head, battling off a severe headache. "Yeah…"

The Vault Hunters all looked at him and shared curious glances, but said nothing else.

"Let's just get out of here," Gaige said, addressing the Vault Hunters.

"Okay," Maya nodded, and she pointed into the distance, "Shuttle's this way."

The group began to walk in the direction Maya had pointed out, oblivious to the fact that Koen wasn't following. He stood where he was, holding his head once again and stumbling around slightly.

After a few steps, Gaige happened to glance over her shoulder. Her eyes went wide when she saw Koen and she turned around and walked back to him cautiously.

"Koen?" She said quietly, as she got close to him and tried to put a hand on him. When she got close, however, Koen extended his arm out and shoved Gaige backwards. She stumbled back, completely shocked. Still, she knew that Koen would never normally do something like that, something must have been seriously wrong.

Gaige turned around to face the Vault Hunters, who still had their backs turned to them. "Umm, guys!" Gaige called out, causing the others to turn around. Once they all saw what was happening, they all ran back to Koen and Gaige. Gaige turned back to Koen, who was still tripping out and breathing heavily. Gaige put her arms around him, trying to keep him steady. This time, he didn't push her away. He had his head down as Gaige held him. After a few seconds, Koen collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

Meanwhile, things had gotten very strange for Koen. During the conversation, just before Maya pointed out the shuttle, his vision went red again. It stayed for a few seconds this time, but when it cleared, he was in a completely different place. He appeared to be in a flat desert. It took him a few seconds to realise exactly where he was. This was the spot where his shuttle had landed when he first came to Pandora. Something was off about the area though. He could only see about ten metres in front of him before his view was cut off by a thick fog. Also, everything seemed to be covered in a slight red haze and there was a heavy wind blowing. Koen had no idea what was happening, but he didn't like it one bit. He noticed he still had his crossbow in his hands, so he raised it warily.

Koen heard various voices echo around the area, all of which he recognised. He also recognised the very sentences they spoke.

_"_…_to have you and your family killed…"_

After a few seconds, a figure began to appear from the fog, walking towards him. Koen knew who it was before he properly got a look, and it made him angrier than ever. His father was coming back to plague him once more, but this time, Koen was ready. He thought about Gaige, he was going to get through this, for her. He'd had enough of this and he was going to end it. Here. Now.

_"Koen?"_

"Let the games begin," Koen's father said, as he walked closer.

Koen had had enough of this, time to at least try something. He was sick of this, and seeing his father yet again only made him even more angry.

"Fuck you!" Koen screamed, as he fired arrow after arrow at his father. However, every time the arrow was about to hit him, he would disappear and reappear a few metres from where he last was. Koen kept on firing however, rapidly loading new arrows every time.

"And fuck! Your! Games!" Koen shouted, firing a shot after every word.

Eventually, an arrow hit his father and he disappeared, and this time he didn't reappear. Koen looked around cautiously, keeping his guard up. He knew it wasn't going to be this easy, if it was even possible. He looked left just in time to see another figure sprinting straight for him. He turned towards the figure and noticed that it was Axton who was sprinting at him. Koen reflexively fired, knowing that none of this was real. Axton disappeared just like his father had, and Koen cursed out loud.

_"Because I know Gaige is alive!"_

Then, more and more figures began to appear and run at him. This time, it was all of the Vault Hunters. Maya, Zer0 and Salvador all ran at him. He fired at them all individually, and they all disappeared, just like the others. Koen began to wonder exactly how long he could keep this up. Suddenly, he was distracted by a familiar voice behind him.

"Hey, Koen," a girl's voice behind him said, and he spun around.

He saw Gaige standing right in front of him, holding a pistol to his head with an evil grin on her face. He buried every single feeling he held towards Gaige at that moment, he couldn't afford any hesitations. Without giving Gaige a chance to do anything, Koen quickly reached out and grabbed the pistol with his free hand. He used his strength to push her hands back with such force that the pistol flew back and hit Gaige in the face, knocking her to the ground. As she fell, she released her grip on the pistol, and Koen ended up with it in his hands. Gaige looked dazed as she lay on the ground, blood trickling out of her nose. He wasn't quite sure if he could bring himself to shoot Gaige, regardless of whether this one was real or not. He waited a few seconds before raising the pistol and aiming at Gaige's head.

_"This isn't real,"_ Koen told himself, _"The real Gaige is perfectly fine…"_

As this Gaige lay down at his feet, completely at his mercy, he heard his father's voice from over his shoulder.

"Go on then, Koen, kill her."

Koen very slowly took aim, intending to finish this Gaige off. But, when he heard a deep laugh coming from behind him, Koen realised what he was doing. He wouldn't kill this Gaige, even if he knew she wasn't real. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he tried one last time to beat his father. If this didn't work, Koen didn't know what would.

Koen quickly spun around and thrust the crossbow straight into his father's chest. Surprisingly, his father jolted from the impact. He didn't disappear like Koen expected him to. Koen noted this and took his chance. Maybe he could beat this after all. Without giving his father any sort of chance, Koen instantly pulled the trigger on his crossbow, and as soon as he did, there was a blinding flash of white light. There was a deafening rumble followed by a high pitched sound.

Once everything had cleared, he found himself somewhere else. He recognised this place as well. He was in his old house back on Eden-6. It had been three years since he was last in this house, but it felt like much longer. He also noticed that his weapons were missing. Things were slightly different this time. It was a lot quieter here, and everything looked much brighter.

It looked like Koen had done something, he just didn't know what exactly. He didn't know what to expect at this point.

"Hello?" Koen called out, not really expecting a response, but he got one nonetheless.

"Up here Koen!" his father called back, in an oddly happy tone of voice. It was the first time Koen had heard his Dad talk like that in a long time. A smile broke out across Koen's face. Maybe this was over, being terrorized by his own Dad. His father's voice was coming from upstairs, so Koen made his way up slowly.

As Koen reached the top of the stairs, he noticed that the door to his Dad's study was slightly ajar. Koen guessed he was in there. He walked up the door and stopped in front of it. Koen took a deep breath, before slowly pushing the door open and walking inside. The room was exactly how Koen remembered it, with a dark green carpet, bookcases lining the walls, and a large window on the other end of the room, behind the big oak desk.

And there, looking out the window with folded arms, stood Koen's father. He looked back when Koen entered the room and his face lit up when he saw Koen.

"Hi, Koen," His Dad said brightly, as if nothing before this had happened.

Koen was completely speechless. The person who had seemingly wanted him dead for so long now stood before him, with a smile on his face, genuinely happy to see him. After a few seconds of having no reaction at all, Koen smiled back at his Dad.

His Dad walked out from behind the desk and over to Koen, his arms held out wide. Koen walked forward as well and they hugged when they met in the centre of the room. Everything about his Dad was just as he remembered it. Koen relaxed and he wished this moment wouldn't end.

After a while, his Dad pulled away and put his hands on Koen's shoulders, just grinning at him. But, something was playing on Koen's mind, and he felt he had to say it. "Dad, this isn't real," he said.

"Afraid not," his Dad replied sadly, as he lifted his hands off Koen's shoulders, "But at least you got to see me again, right?"

"Yeah…" Koen sighed. He wouldn't forget about what had happened before, but he wouldn't hold it against his Dad either. How could he?

"I'm sorry to say this, but I think it's time to you to get back to reality, where you belong. Besides, Gaige is waiting for you." His Dad said.

"Wait, how do you know about Gaige?" Koen asked.

His Dad let out a light chuckle. "Koen, I'll always be watching you, don't worry," he smiled.

Then, the bright light obscured Koen's vision and the high pitched ringing filled his ears. His Dad was right, Gaige was waiting for him. And while he would most likely never see his Dad again, this was how Koen wanted to remember him, just as he was before all this madness. He'd hold onto this moment forever and appreciate the second chance he was given, even if it had nearly killed him.

_"Always watching."_


	16. Heaven's Got A Plan For You

**A/N: Okay, sorry this took so long again, but you can probably see why. This is the last chapter besides the epilogue, so I'm gonna save the emotional speech for the author's note in the next chapter :P But seriously, thanks for reading this far and I hope you guys enjoy the ending.**

**mika laylani: Hehe, glad you noticed :) The whole story is pretty much inspired by that song. Really, listen to the song again with this story in mind, some of the lyrics fit in with the story! :D**

**scottusa1: Uh-huh, that was the plan.**

**Cellshoes: Thank you so much for that review, made my day, again! :)**

**Epic Gamer: Relax, it's all under control xD**

**Commander Hammer: Yeah, while I did consider killing him off at one stage, I decided it against it, and I'm glad I did! **

**GJ115: Sorry about the cliffhanger, but thanks! **

**Also, +5 internetz to the person who notices a reference to a certain game during this chapter. Well, actually its a few quotes taken directly from the game but whatever. Seriously though, +5 internetz, I mean, that's a lot :P**

**Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

Koen woke with a start. His eyes shot open and he came back to reality with a jolt. He threw himself forward into a sitting position, almost clashing heads with Gaige, who he only noticed after a second or two. He was breathing heavily and sweating. He was still trying to comprehend exactly what had just happened. Then, he lifted his head to see Gaige kneeling down next to him, breathing a sigh of relief with a huge grin on her face. Koen barely had time to smile back at her before her arms were around him. He smiled and returned the hug. Gaige lay down beside him and buried her face in his chest.

"Thank God," she said in a muffled voice, "I thought…"

As she trailed off, Koen felt touched that she cared that much about him. The last person who did that was Marshall.

"It's okay," Koen said as he gently broke away from the hug. Gaige was on her knees beside him, still smiling. "I'm good."

Koen looked around for the Vault Hunters, but couldn't see them anywhere. He thought about what their reaction to this was going to be, though he guessed it would not be good. He figured that, to them, he was just some insane teenager. In his defence, they had put up with Gaige for this long.

Gaige stood up and held out her metal arm in front of Koen. He reached up and grabbed it as Gaige pulled him up. Gaige noticed him tilting slightly and she grabbed his arms, trying to keep him steady.

"I got this," Koen laughed, and Gaige let go.

Just then, the Vault Hunters all came around a nearby corner. Koen looked nervously over at Gaige, but she reassured him with a smile. Koen and Gaige walked towards the Vault hunters and they met half way. There was a long silence and Koen felt as though everyone's eyes were on him. He looked around, trying not to make eye contact with the others. Gaige finally broke the silence, much to Koen's relief.

"Soooo," Gaige said loudly, "We were leaving."

The Hunters still looked at Koen curiously, while Axton glared with anger.

"Uh-huh," Axton confirmed in a disinterested tone, still not taking his eyes off Koen. After a few seconds, however, he turned around and continued on the way they were heading. The other Vault Hunters turned and followed him, none of them saying anything.

"Fuck me," Koen said, sounding annoyed and letting out a sigh as he slowly dragged his hand down his face.

_"Don't mind if I do," _Gaige thought to herself as she watched him, _"No, bad Gaige. Control yourself, dammit. Just play it cool… but, damn."_

"What's wrong?" Gaige asked aloud.

"Did you see the way Axton was looking at me?" Koen replied, "I'm surprised he didn't shoot me down right then and there."

"Not while I'm around," Gaige said, looking over at the Vault hunters who were walking towards the shuttle, "Now come on, let's get off this craphole of a planet."

"Damn right," Koen laughed, and they both began to follow the Vault Hunters. The Vault Hunters stopped in front of a shuttle that looked exactly like the ones Gaige and Koen had used to get here in the first place. Koen and Gaige walked slowly over to them.

There was another tense silence as the group of six stopped outside the shuttle. Koen knew everyone was watching him again, but this time he stared straight into Axton's eyes, showing no expression. Koen wished Axton would say something, rather than giving him this silent treatment. The stare-off continued for a few seconds before they were interrupted by a shout to their left. They all turned to see a lone Hyperion soldier standing a few metres away from them.

"Hey!" the guard shouted and drew his weapon.

Everyone raised their weapons to fire, but Koen was the fastest. He aimed at the soldier and fired whatever arrow he had loaded at the time. The arrow pierced the man's chest and also set him on fire on impact. Turned out it was a fire arrow.

The soldier began to scream as the fire slowly engulfed him. He stumbled around desperately trying to put the flames out, to no success. Within seconds, the man's corpse lay still on the ground, burning. Koen was sure that the guards death screams could be heard for miles.

"That could have been quieter…" Koen mumbled to himself, not really caring if anyone else heard it or not.

Almost immediately after he said that, a door to one of the buildings slid open and Hyperion soldiers began to file out, each carrying weapons. It was at that moment that Koen realised that he didn't have his shield, it had been taken away from him when he ended up here and he had completely forgotten to get it back. He assumed this was the same for Gaige. He quickly turned around and glanced at Gaige's waist to find that her shield was missing as well. Completely oblivious to this, she summoned Deathtrap. As the huge robot appeared beside her, Koen grabbed Gaige and pulled her down behind a nearby stack of metal crates. As he crouched down beside her, she gave him a look of confusion. Deathtrap, meanwhile, hovered away and began tearing through the Hyperion soldiers.

"We don't have shields, remember?" Koen said, nodding down at her waist.

Gaige looked around her belt and saw that he was right. "Well what the hell do we do now?" Gaige asked frantically, knowing that they were pretty much screwed without shields.

Then, another door opened up behind them and even more Hyperion soldiers spilled out, each one armed. Koen grabbed Gaige again and threw her over to the other side of the crates and then followed her around. They crouched down again, and Koen peeked his head out over the crates to see that Maya and Zer0 had turned around to deal with the fresh batch of Hyperion soldiers. Gaige and Koen were still in danger though, and in need of a shield each.

"Does anyone have some spare shields?!" Koen shouted at the Vault Hunters.

"No! Sold all mine!" Axton yelled back, as he took out another Hyperion soldier.

"Anyone else?!" Koen called again.

"Nope!"

"No, sorry amigo!"

"No."

"Perfect," Koen grumbled as he turned back to face Gaige, "Of course they don't have any damn shields."

"Well what now?!" Gaige shouted at him.

Koen made the risky move of poking his head out from behind the cover and taking a look at the battle. It looked like the Vault Hunters were doing a good job of killing the Hyperion soldiers as they came, but more and more kept coming. He wished he could go in and help, but going in without a shield would be suicide.

Then, Koen had an idea. He noticed that each Hyperion soldier was equipped with a shield. If he could just get his hands on a pair of them, it would at least stop him and Gaige from being killed instantly. He decided to go for it.

"Okay, I have an idea," Koen said to Gaige loudly, "I'm gonna get us some shields."

"How?" Gaige asked.

"No idea," Koen replied with a smile.

"Huh?"

And with that, Koen put his hands on the top of the crates and vaulted them. He sprinted for another low metal wall a few metres ahead of him. He must have caught a break in the fire or something because there wasn't much people firing on him. Once he got close to the cover, he slid along the ground and behind it. Koen suddenly realized that this was the worst and most dangerous decision he had ever made in his life.

Just as Koen crouched behind the cover, another Hyperion soldier ran over and took cover behind the other side, ready to pop up and blast Koen away any second. Without giving the soldier time to do anything, Koen raised his crossbow up over the cover and tilted it downwards. He pulled the trigger and he saw blood spurt upwards from the other side of the cover. Looked like he got him.

Koen glanced up to the see the soldier's lifeless body slumped over the metal wall. Koen reached up, grabbed the soldier by the arm and pulled him over the cover and onto the ground beside Koen. Koen then searched him for the shield and found it attached to a belt around his waist. He reached down, ripped the shield from the soldier and put it on his own belt.

Suddenly feeling a lot less vulnerable than he did a minute ago, he went to go look for a shield for Gaige. Just as he was about to break cover, he saw Deathtrap speeding in Koen's direction, ignoring the hail of bullets and continuing on his Hyperion soldier murder spree. Koen had another idea, seemed like he was full of genius ideas today. Just as Deathtrap passed by him, Koen reached out and grabbed onto a piece of metal sticking out from Deathtrap's back and pulled himself up. Koen pulled his legs up and pressed his feet against Deathtrap's back, holding on with one hand and holding his crossbow with the other. He was effectively using Deathtrap as a giant shield as Deathtrap tanked through the bullets. Koen held on for a few more seconds until they came close to a Hyperion soldier. Koen fired at the soldier as they passed him, and then let go of Deathtrap. Koen quickly grabbed the second shield from the soldier. The shield was almost identical to the first one. Once Koen had the shield, he sprinted back in the direction he came from, leaving Deathtrap to deal with the soldiers. He jumped over various crates and obstacles as he ran back to Gaige. Once he reached the stack of crates that he knew Gaige was behind, he flung himself over it and ended up on the ground behind it, looking up at Gaige.

"Found a shield," he grinned and held up the shield to her. She stared at him with wide eyes for a few seconds before quickly grabbing the shield and putting it on.

"Koen, that was awesome!" Gaige laughed.

"I'm just thankful that you built Deathtrap with such thick armour," Koen said, as he pushed himself off the ground and into a crouching position behind the metal wall. "Now, ready to kill some of these guys?"

"Hell yeah!" she cheered, and before Koen could stop her, she bolted out of cover, firing madly.

Koen quickly shook his head and then followed her into the fight. There seemed to be less Hyperion soldiers around now, maybe they were finally running out of men. The Vault Hunters were grouped close in the middle, each one picking off every soldier they could see. Axton stood still beside his turret, firing alongside it. Salvador was holding two giant machine guns and spraying bullets in every direction. Zer0 was running around slicing up the soldiers with his digi-struct katana. Maya was lighting the soldiers up with a fire SMG, and occasionally releasing another phaselock.

Meanwhile, Deathtrap had returned to Gaige and she had hopped up onto his shoulders again. She laughed maniacally as Deathtrap tore through every enemy he could find, while Gaige shot down anyone who wasn't killed by her robotic guardian. Koen then joined the fray, running away from the cover and shooting at every Hyperion soldier he could see.

After a few more minutes of constant gunfire, the Vault Hunters noticed Hyperion's numbers decreasing. There were less than about two dozen now, and no more seemed to be coming. The soldiers were gunned down one by one until there were none left.

Bodies littered the ground around them as the Vault Hunters gathered right beside the shuttle. Axton reclaimed his turret, Zer0 sheathed his sword and Gaige destructed Deathtrap. Then, Zer0 walked over to a small console on the side of the shuttle and began to type something into it. After a few seconds, there was a loud hissing noise and the door of the shuttle opened up. Zer0 then walked back and joined the rest of the group. Koen and Gaige shared a quick glance before Gaige turned back to the Vault Hunters.

"Sooo…" Gaige said quietly, sounding like she was just holding back more tears, "This is it then."

"Guess so," Axton said sadly and held out his arms, "Come here."

Gaige walked over to Axton and hugged him. Gaige held on to him for a while, knowing that this was probably the last time she would ever see Axton. Gaige looked back at everything he had done for her while she was on Pandora. He was like a father to her in the absence of her real dad. He had always been there for her, no matter the circumstances. Even now, he was still doing all he could to make sure she was safe.

"I'm gonna miss you, Axton…" Gaige mumbled, as she broke away from the hug and looked up at him.

"Miss you too," Axton said, nodding his head slightly.

Then, Gaige turned to Maya and did the same thing. They pulled each other into a tight hug. Gaige then switched her mind to Maya. If Axton was like her father, then Maya was her mother. Gaige had taken an instant liking to Maya from the very first time she saw her. There was just something about her that made Gaige feel… safe. Now, as Gaige hugged Maya for the last time, she almost didn't want the moment to end, yet she knew it would have to.

Meanwhile, Koen stood back and watched as Gaige said goodbye to her friends. He kind of understood how she felt, they had been through so much together. Then, Koen heard Axton say something to him.

"Hey, Koen," Axton called, "Come over here for a second."

As Koen walked over to Axton, Gaige went over to Zer0. She stopped in front of him and looked up at the tall assassin. Zer0 had saved Gaige's life countless times, and even though you couldn't have a proper conversation with the guy, Gaige would still miss him.

"Zer0!" Gaige finally shouted with glee as she threw her arms around the masked assassin. This surprised Zer0, he threw up his arms and a bright red **':o' **projected from his helmet. Then, the expression changed into a **':D'** and he slowly brought his arms down around Gaige.

Koen walked up to Axton and Axton put a hand on Koen's shoulder and turned him away from the rest of the group so he could talk to him privately.

"Look," Axton began, "I don't know what happened to you a while back, but I guess it's none of my business. While I _was_ worried about leaving Gaige with you, seeing you risk your safety to get Gaige a shield… that was damn impressive."

Koen looked down at the ground and smiled, "It was nothing…"

"You love her, don't you?" Axton asked. While Koen was surprised he had caught on so quickly, he knew there was no use denying it.

"Yeah…" Koen said, looking back at Axton.

Axton only grinned back at him and gently turned him around and pushed him back to the group.

"Good," Axton whispered as he patted Koen on the back, "Keep her safe."

Koen turned around just in time to see Gaige hug Salvador, which was pretty funny to watch considering she was quite a bit taller than him. The dwarf let out a booming laugh as he hugged her back. While Salvador typically saw Gaige as a loud, hyperactive teenager, he always reserved sort of a soft spot for her, and vice versa.

"Hehe, catch ya later, chica," Salvador said, as Gaige moved away from him.

Gaige walked over and stood beside Koen as she looked at the group of people who had become much more than her friends, they had become her family. They had been with her ever since that train ride on her very first day on Pandora, and had been with her all the way. While they had their ups and downs, Gaige was more than happy to call this group of amazing people her friends, and that's what they would always be.

With their goodbyes out of the way, the whole group walked over to the open shuttle. Koen walked ahead slightly and stopped at the shuttle, leaning against the side of the door. Gaige followed him and stopped in the doorway of the shuttle. She turned around and took one last look at the Vault Hunters. It was becoming increasingly more difficult for her not to cry. She walked backwards further into the shuttle, waving as she did so. Axton turned his head to look at Koen, and Koen nodded at him with a smile. Axton returned the nod and then continued waving. Once Gaige was inside, Koen followed her in.

Zer0 then walked up to the console beside the shuttle and began typing again. After a few seconds, the door to the shuttle began to slowly close. Gaige enjoyed her once last look at the Vault Hunters until the thick metal door finally shut, separating Gaige from the Vault Hunters for the last time. Koen felt the shuttle take off almost instantly. The room shook very slightly, but besides that, there was no other way to tell that they had taken off.

He was then surprised by Gaige throwing her arms around him again, sobbing heavily. Koen knew better than anyone how it felt to be separated from the people you love, so he tried to make her feel better in the one way he knew how. He had been waiting quite some time to do this.

Koen held Gaige away from him at arm's length for a second, before lowering his hands slightly and pulling her into a kiss. Gaige's eyes widened as their lips met. She was caught completely off guard by this. She had been waiting so long for this, and now that it was finally happening, she was not disappointed. Her brain lit up and she could've sworn she saw lights as she closed her eyes, relaxed and enjoyed the kiss.

They broke away after another half a minute. They both grinned at each other, still buzzing.

"Better?" Koen asked with a big smile.

Gaige was speechless.

* * *

Maya, Axton, Salvador and Zer0 all watched as the shuttle rocketed away from the ground and into the night sky. While Maya felt a lump in her throat, she couldn't help but think that some good had come from this planet. She also felt she had done something right in simply just keeping Gaige safe. Maya almost wished Gaige didn't have to leave, but she knew it was for the best. After all, she did have a family to get back to, and Maya knew Gaige would be in good hands.

Maya felt an around close around her shoulders. She looked glanced to the side to Axton standing next to her, looking up. Maya then continued to look up at the shuttle with him.

"It's not gonna get any easier, is it?" Maya asked him, referring to how they would cope with her being gone now compared to how they had before.

"For us, probably not," Axton replied, "But Gaige is safe, and that's all that matters. We've played our part, now she'll live out the rest of her life, with… or without us."

Maya leaned in towards Axton and he put his arm around her. They both looked up together and watched the shuttle become smaller and smaller. The Vault Hunters had made their decision, they were going to stay on Pandora, at least for a while longer. They all came here because they had nowhere to go or no family or friends to turn to, except for Salvador, who was born and raised here. They had grown used to Pandora, and while it wasn't the best home ever, they all found it hard to leave. This was probably because all they had was here, on this planet.

"For those who make this place their home…." Axton muttered. As he said this, he looked at Maya, then over at Zer0 and Salvador, and then back up to the shuttle, "That is how it will always be."

* * *

Koen and Gaige had been in the shuttle for nearly an hour. For the first ten minutes of the journey, Gaige tapped furiously at a console inside the shuttle. Koen had no idea what she was doing, maybe setting the shuttle to land in a certain place, he had no idea.

Now, Koen sat on the floor of the shuttle with his back against the wall. Gaige lay next to him with her head resting on his shoulder while he had his arm around her. It was a good feeling for both of them. Koen kept still and looked up at the roof, while Gaige played idly with her metal fingers. Finally, after a long time of neither of them saying anything, Gaige finally spoke.

"Damn, it's fricken' _freezing _in here," she whined. Koen guessed she was finding it cold because she was in a t-shirt.

Now that she mentioned it, Koen noticed that it was quite cold inside the shuttle. He had no idea why it was this cold in here, but he had gotten used to cold from his time on Eden-6, where the weather was never nice, so the cold didn't affect him too badly.

Koen smiled and reached over for his backpack. He unzipped it, reached inside and pulled out his green hoodie that he had taken off and stored when they were back in the dust. He handed Gaige the hoodie and she cracked a huge grin.

"You are awesome," Gaige said, as she grabbed the hoodie and pulled it over her. Once she had the hoodie on, she settled back down next to Koen, enjoying the warmth from him and the hoodie. Gaige was tired, and she felt herself slowly drifting into sleep.

"Hey Koen," Gaige murmured sleepily.

"Yes?" Koen replied.

"Guess what."

"What?"

"I love you."

Koen let out a huge laugh at this. "Love you too, Gaige," he laughed as he put his head back on the wall and shut his eyes in an attempt to get some sleep. It turned out to not be that difficult, as they were both fast asleep within a minute.

* * *

Koen slowly opened his eyelids and a bright light shone into his eyes. He half closed his eyes and raised a hand up against the light. He moved his head to the right slightly and the light decreased. He could see that the light was spilling through a small window on the opposite side of the shuttle. Looking out the window, he could see blue skies and the beaming sun. They must have landed while they were asleep.

Koen sat up and rubbed his eyes. He was thankful they had managed to sleep through the entire journey, even the shuttle landing. He decided to wake Gaige up, who was still lying next to him, asleep.

_"Damn, she looks cute when she sleeps," _Koen thought.

He very gently shook Gaige awake. Her eyelids fluttered open and her hands instantly raised up to her eyes and began rubbing them, just like Koen had done. She then raised her arms high up in the air and let out a long moan as she stretched away all the stiffness. Koen only laughed at the sight.

"Are you quite done?" He asked with a smile.

"Hnnghh… yes," Gaige yawned back, "Where are we?"

"Well, if I were to guess, I would say we're on Eden-5," Koen replied as he nodded to the window.

"What?!" she exclaimed, excitement in her voice. She shot up off the ground, ran over to the window and looked outside. She instantly recognized the place as Eden-5. "Wooooooooooo!" she cheered, and ran over to the door of the shuttle. She hit a button beside the door and the door slid open.

"Well, come on!" she said happily, gesturing for Koen to get up.

As Koen was pushing himself off the ground, Gaige ran outside. Koen gathered up all his stuff and exited after her. Koen pressed the back of his hand against his forehead as he stepped out of the shuttle, protecting his eyes from the sun.

They appeared to be in a big field that was surrounded by various different buildings and houses. They both spun in a circle, taking in their surroundings. For Gaige, she felt a sense of comfort and safety just from being back in familiar surroundings. For Koen, it was a while new experience. This place already looked a lot more clean and modern than Eden-6. He had a feeling he was going to like it here.

"Hey, I know where we are," Gaige said finally, "My house is like, twenty minutes away. Hahaa! I knew I could make it land close enough."

"Is there anything you can't do?" Koen asked.

* * *

Gaige led Koen through an endless amount of roads and housing estates for the best part of an hour. Koen was feeling slightly conspicuous as people gave him strange glares because of the weapons he carried. He was edgy for the whole time he followed Gaige.

He was just about to ask Gaige if she was sure where she was going, until she stopped outside a house. Koen instantly knew that this was Gaige's house, it was written all over her face. She just looked like a person who had been away from home for too long. A huge grin spread across her face and she began sprinting towards the front door of the house. Koen jogged behind her and he took a look at the house as it went. It sort of resembled his old house on Eden-6, except slightly more modern. It was a two story house, with two windows on the top floor and one large window on the ground floor. Gaige ran straight up to a dark blue, wooden door and knocked on it with her robot hand so excitedly that she nearly put her fist through it.

As she waited for someone to answer the door, shaking anxiously, Koen caught up with her. He stood slightly behind her and waited as well. Koen genuinely thought Gaige was going to implode from sheer happiness right then and there. Her giddy smile was contagious and he soon found himself smiling along with her, feeling happy for her that she was finally getting home to her parents. At least one of them would.

Finally, the door swung open to reveal a tall man with dark brown hair. He was reasonably well built, with a physique similar to Axton. He wore a pair of blue jeans, along with a black V-neck t-shirt. Koen correctly guessed that this was Gaige's dad.

Her dad had been smiling when he opened the door, but once he saw Gaige, his face dropped to one of complete shock and awe. His eyes went wider than Koen had ever seen anyone's go, and said nothing for a second. Meanwhile, Gaige was grinning and hopping around like, well, a schoolgirl.

Then, Gaige leaped up and hugged her dad. His face lit up as he hugged his daughter back. Her dad simply couldn't believe it. It had been too long since he had seen Gaige last. Hell, he didn't even know if she was alive or not, but now, he was absolutely thrilled to have her back. Koen noticed Gaige's dad's face going red, and Koen could have sworn he saw a tear rolling down his cheek. It was truly a heart warming sight.

"Sweetie…" her dad said with a smile on his face, sounding like he was holding back tears. The two swayed gently as they hugged, and Koen just stood back and watched.

After a few seconds, Koen heard a, slightly older, female voice coming from inside the house. Koen glanced through the door to see a woman who was basically an older version of Gaige. She had the same red hair, similar face, similar everything. It didn't take a genius to work out that it was Gaige's mother.

"Honey, who was at the-" Gaige's mother said, as she stepped out from one of the rooms. She stopped herself mid-sentence when she saw Gaige's dad standing in the doorway, hugging someone. At first, she was confused, but then, when she noticed who it was that her husband was hugging, she reacted in the exact same way he had.

"Oh my God…" she breathed, and ran down the hallway and threw her arms around both of them, joining the family hug.

For Gaige's parents, there were no words to describe how happy they were to have their daughter safe and sound. For Gaige herself, she was just so happy to finally be back with the two people that meant the world to her.

As the family stood in front of Koen, crying with happiness, he couldn't help but feel a bit of pride in himself. He thought to himself as he watched this now happy family. He had done a lot of things in his life, some things that he wasn't proud of, some things he wished he did differently. But right then, he pushed away all the bad and instead focused on the one good thing he had done, and that was reunite this broken family. He leaned against the door frame and patiently waited for their moment to finish. He often wished that he had parents of his own, so he could enjoy moments like this, but he didn't, and that was just the way things were.

Eventually, they broke the embrace and took a step back. Gaige's dad kept one hand on his daughter's shoulder, and her mother wiped away the happy tears from her eyes.

"Come on, let's get you inside," Gaige's mother said happily.

Just before the family turned around into the house, Gaige's dad finally noticed Koen standing there.

"Oh, uh, Gaige, who's this?" her dad asked, nodding at Koen.

Then, at that moment, Koen realised something that he should have realised the second he heard Gaige's dad speak for the first time. Koen recognized the voice, and although he was surprised that he did, it wasn't a voice Koen was to forget any time soon. Gaige's dad was the man on the ECHO device. The person who had told Koen to kill Mr. Holloway in the first place.

Gaige's dad only looked at Koen blankly. He knew well that this was the same Koen he had spoken to before, there was no mistaking that.

Gaige looked at Koen, then back up at her dad. "That's Koen. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be alive right now," she said with a smile.

* * *

Koen walked in circles around the family's living room, messing with random piece of furniture. Gaige had gone upstairs to have a shower, and her parents had gone into another room to discuss something. That left Koen downstairs in their house, playing with random things to keep his boredom at bay.

He came across a shelf that was crowded with different framed photos. They seemed to show the happy family at different points in their life. Almost every photo consisted of Gaige, her mom, and her dad. Gaige's age in the photos ranged from how she was now, to her as a baby in her mother's arms. Koen looked at the pictures for a minute or two, until he was reminded of something. He walked over to his backpack that he had left beside one of the couches in the room and unzipped it. He rummaged around inside until he found what he was looking for: an old, faded photograph of him and his family.

The picture showed a man, who was Koen's dad, a woman, who was Koen's mother, and Koen himself when he was a teenager. A bigger version of the picture used to be hung up in his old house on Eden-6, but that was gone now, so this was all he had left. He crashed onto the comfortable couch and stared at the picture as he leaned into his hand to keep his head up. The picture was crumpled and torn slightly, but Koen didn't care. It had more meaning to him than anything he carried.

Suddenly, a voice from right beside him interrupted his thoughts.

"Nice picture," the voice said, making Koen jump in his seat and snap to attention.

"Jesus!" Koen shouted, as he looked to his left to see his own dad sitting on the couch next to him. His dad couldn't help but laugh at the fright he had given his son. Once Koen had relaxed slightly, he began laughing along with his dad. Koen was just thankful that his dad wasn't trying to kill him.

"Look," Koen said, "If I have to deal with you for the rest of my life, you could at least give me a little notice before you show up and scare me to death."

"Hey, you're the one with the messed up brain, remember?" his dad chuckled, "Only you can control when I'm here and when I'm not."

"Uhh, not really," Koen replied.

"Well, get used to it," Koen's dad said with a smile.

Then, Koen heard footsteps coming down the stairs. His dad followed Koen's eyes as they both looked towards the door.

"Heads up, looks like you got company," his dad said.

Gaige's dad then walked through the door. He saw Koen sitting on the couch, looking at the picture.

"Uhh, Gaige is just upstairs getting cleaned up," Gaige's dad said as he turned around and closed the door behind him. Koen glanced up at him before putting the picture back into his backpack for relatively safe keeping. He then stood up in front of Gaige's dad and held out his hand for a shake. Gaige's dad looked Koen up and down, and then reached out and shook Koen's hand.

"I guess it's good to finally meet you, Mr. Martin," Koen said. It felt wrong calling him 'Mr. Martin', but he didn't know what else to call him. 'Gaige's dad' seemed a lot worse.

"Koen," he smiled back, "You didn't travel halfway across the galaxies, survive on the most dangerous planet ever found and rescue my daughter just to call me by my second name. Please, call me Alex."

"Oh, uh, okay," Koen stuttered, as he let go of Alex's hand.

Then, Alex let out a long sigh and then began. "Koen, I can't even begin to thank you enough for what you've done. I mean, even after what happened on Eden-6 to get you sent to Pandora in the first place, all that was my fault."

Koen held up a hand to stop him, "I don't blame you," he said, "And you shouldn't feel bad about anything, how could you have known that all this was going to happen? Also, about Gaige, she saved my life a few times, this was the least I could do for her."

Alex was completely stunned towards Koen's selfless attitude. He'd been to hell and back, yet he still put others before himself. Alex didn't know many people like that.

"You're a bigger man than I am," Alex grinned, "Anyway, there's somebody coming soon that may just make your day."

"Who is it?" Koen asked, intrigued.

"Let's just say it's someone who's dying to see you again."

"Again?"

* * *

Upstairs, Gaige was getting ready to have a shower. While she tried to keep herself clean by having showers in Sanctuary whenever she could, it didn't matter much because she was only going to be soaked in blood by the end of the day anyway. That was one thing she was not going to miss about Pandora.

She grabbed her pink towel and headed into her room for the first time in too long. The room was exactly how she left it, a complete mess. There were clothes, paper, and other random objects strewn across the floor. She looked at the walls, which were covered in posters of various different punk-rock groups, as well as her trademark Anarchy symbol etched into the wall in a few places. She sighed with content, it was good to be back.

She began to remove the random objects she had attached to her wrist and neck, along with her goggles and laid them out on her bed. She reached down and unclipped the belt and threw it to the ground along with everything that was attached to it. She pulled off Koen's hoodie, and looked at it for a few seconds before placing down on her bed. She then kicked off her shoes and unzipped her skirt. She pulled the skirt down to the ground and stepped out of it. She then grabbed her stockings and pulled them off, then pulled her t-shirt off after that. Once she was in her underwear, she picked up her towel and walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

It was the small things she had missed while she was on Pandora. Sleeping in her own bed, her own workshop, all these little things made her glad to be home.

Gaige walked over to the bathroom mirror and took a long look at it. She expected to see her own reflection, but what she saw was a girl she barely recognised. The girl that stared back at her had filthy, red hair that hung down to her shoulders. The girl's face was dirty as well, and her eyes looked tired, along with the rest of her face. Gaige shook her head at the mirror and then looked away from it.

Gaige turned the shower on and waited a few seconds for the shower to heat up, before taking off her underwear and stepping inside. She was instantly greeted by the blissful warmth of the water. While Sanctuary did have showers, they were usually disgusting and freezing cold. But this, this was amazing. She felt herself relax as she let the hot water take over.

The long shower gave her time to reflect on the past month or so. She thought about just how much she'd changed. She couldn't believe she was the scared girl that had cried on the train on Pandora because she missed her parents so much. She went from being that to being someone who would kill dozens of people just for money. Gaige wasn't sure she liked that change. She had focused so hard on simply trying to survive on Pandora that she had forgotten who she was. Maybe she would become the person she was before all this now that she was back home, but she doubted it. Pandora changes people, and usually for the worse.

She watched as the mixture of blood and dirt swirled around her feet. She thought that if she ever ended up soaked in blood again, it would be too soon. Once she decided she was clean enough, she turned off the shower and got out. She picked up her towel and dried herself off. As she did so, she wondered what the future would hold for her and Koen. Did she love him? Hell yeah. Did she want to spend her life with him? Definitely.

That got her thinking about what she wanted to do for herself. She hadn't really thought about it, but she wanted off her two more years of school. While she loved education but hated school, she thought she might as well endure the last two years. Besides, she couldn't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces when she comes back.

Once she was done drying herself, she left the bathroom and went back into her room. After putting on fresh underwear, she searched through the ocean of discarded clothes until she pulled out a pair of ripped jeans, a t-shirt, and a bright pink hoodie. She put them all on quickly, not bothering with any of the chains and bracelets she usually wore, and then headed back downstairs, feeling much more refreshed than she did before the shower.

Gaige jumped down the last two steps on the stairs, because of the good mood she was in. Just as her feet touched the ground, she heard a loud knock on the door. She walked towards the door, wondering who it could be. She grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. Gaige was surprised to see someone she had never met before.

In front of her stood a young man, probably only around twenty or twenty one. He was taller than Gaige, and was very well built all round. He had dark brown, spiky hair that was swept to one side.

"Uhh, hi," Gaige said awkwardly, not knowing what to say to someone she hadn't met before.

"Hey," the young man said, "I take it your Gaige, welcome back."

"Thanks…" Gaige said quietly, "I-I'm sorry, but… who are you?"

The man laughed at her awkwardness. "Oh, sorry, I'm Marshall, I'm a friend of your dad's. I've been here a while now." he laughed.

Marshall. Gaige instantly recognised the name. This was Koen's closest friend, the one that had accompanied him for years after his parents died. While Gaige was confused as to how Marshall had ended up here, she was delighted for Koen. Finally, something good was going to happen to him, and that was to see his friend again.

"Oh… come in," Gaige smiled, as she stood aside to let Marshall in. As he stepped through the doorway, he stopped and looked down at Gaige.

"So, where is he?" Marshall asked.

"Through that door there," Gaige said, pointing out the closest door to them. The door led into the sitting room, where she had left Koen.

Without another word, Marshall walked over to the door and opened it. Gaige shut the front door and followed him inside. Once Koen heard the door move, he looked away from Alex and over at the door. It took him a second to register who it was that walked through the door, but when he did, his heart felt like it was about to burst from pure excitement and happiness. Alex's eyes flicked between the two boys, smiling at both of them.

"It was quite the stroke of luck that I found Marshall, actually," Alex explained, then stopped himself when he realized neither Koen nor Marshall were listening

Marshall grinned at Koen, and Koen grinned back as he shot up off the couch and ran over to his friend. They each held out their arms and hugged each other. The hug lasted for a few seconds and they patted each other on their backs. Koen then stepped away and looked up slightly at his friend, grinning madly. He simply couldn't believe that Marshall was here with him. Koen honestly thought he'd lost him. Koen was sure he had some story to tell. Hell, they both did.

"You- how did- what-" Koen stammered, a million different questions flying through his head at once.

"Woah, easy," Marshall chuckled, "I'll explain everything later."

By this time, Gaige's mother had also entered the room, as she watched the scene with the same reaction as her husband. Gaige's mother put her arms around Gaige and her father joined in with his wife and daughter.

Koen looked around the room at the happy faces. He looked at Marshall, then over to Gaige and her family, and then over to the figure that had been lurking in the corner of his eye for a minute or so now. He took a proper look to his dad standing next to Gaige, with his arms folded and smiling down at him.

Koen hadn't felt this happy and content in a long time. Now, as he looked between the three people he cared about most in his life, he had a realization. The realization that, alongside all these people, he once again had a life worth living.

And it was all thanks to one, incredible girl.


	17. Years

**A/N: Woah... so you guys probably thought I was gone or something, right? Well, I've just been INCREDIBLY busy lately and haven't really found the time to write. Anyway, I finally managed to get this done, even if it is pretty short.**

**You guys may or may not enjoy this last chapter, for... reasons... but whatever.**

**scottusa1: While I vaguely mentioned while he's there in this chapter, I will fully explain how he got there in a series of one-shots i'll be doing soon. These one-shots will be set in random moments throughout the whole timeline.**

**Epic Gamer: Not just yet...**

**Cellshoes: Well, here it is. Oh, you're awesome by the way :)**

**Analyn Rockwand: On it!**

**GJ115:Yus**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Unsurprisingly, one of the first things Gaige did, only an hour after arriving home, was return to her workshop. She had been away from her favourite place for far too long. Sure, she had a place to work and parts to mess with on Pandora, but it just wasn't the same. To her, it was even better than getting her own bed back.

Gaige led Koen through the house and towards the workshop, leaving everyone else to continue their conversation back in the sitting room. While Gaige didn't know a lot about Marshall, she at least found out that he had been around here for a few days before this. She wanted to sit down and have a conversation with him, but she had other things she wanted to do at that moment.

Without even stopping, Gaige pushed the door to the workshop open and stepped inside. She hit the light switch that was mounted on the wall beside the door and the lights flickered on, illuminating her work space. Koen followed her inside and closed the door behind him. Koen was quite amazed at the little set up she had here. There were tables all around the room with tools resting on top of them, and a large workbench against one wall. On the other side of the room, there was a desk with a computer monitor on top and the actual computer itself underneath. Tools and gadgets hung off hooks on the walls, some seemingly more used than others. Now, Koen could see why Gaige hardly ever left this place, it had literally everything she needed.

"Welcome to my little base of operations," Gaige said with a smile, extending her arms out and spinning around.

"This is quite the workspace you got here," Koen said, impressed.

Gaige gave Koen another smile before heading over to her computer. She sat herself down in the office chair in front of the desk and turned the computer and monitor on. ECHOnet was pretty much unheard of on Pandora, so she spent the last month or so completely disconnected from it. She decided it couldn't hurt to check on her ECHO subscribers, and possibly give them an update on everything that had happened since her last one.

The computer eventually powered up and Koen watched Gaige as she tapped away furiously at the keyboard with remarkable pace. He tilted his head and wondered how it was possible for anyone to type that fast. Then again, this was Gaige he was talking about. He also had no clue what she was actually doing. He never really understood computers fully, he only really learned how to use ECHO devices and other necessary gadgets.

After a minute of solid typing, Gaige's eyes widened and she slouched back in her chair, a huge grin showing o her face. Koen glanced at the screen to try and find out why she was so happy, but couldn't make out what he was looking it.

"1,097,694 freakin' subscribers! Hell yeah!" Gaige shouted, celebrating this by doing a short dance in her chair.

Koen just looked at her and wondered what the hell she was talking about. "Huh?"

"Ah, okay, whew… so, uh, I do this thing ever so often where I record myself talking into an ECHO device and then upload it to the ECHOnet. A subscriber is just someone who listens to it every time I upload," Gaige explained.

Koen just about got his head around the concept. "So… you're telling me that a million people take time to listen to what you have to say?" He asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," she replied.

"So…what exactly is it that you ramble on about in these ECHO-casts?" Koen laughed.

"Hey! I'll have you know my ECHO-casts are super interesting! Or, rather, they were."

"Oh yeah? Play a few of them for me."

"If you say so," Gaige said, and she spins around in her chair again to face the computer. After another bit of typing, and a few clicks of the mouse, Gaige's voice comes through the speakers on the monitor. As soon as he heard Gaige's voice, Koen noticed that she sounded a lot younger than she did now, even though it was only around two months ago.

Gaige sat back and watched Koen as he listened intently to each ECHO-cast as it played out. He raised an eyebrow when she talked about how she lost her arm, laughed when Gaige recalled Marcie's death, and bit his lip when Gaige is struggling to keep it together while on the trans-planetary shuttle.

"Well," Koen said after the ECHO-casts had finished, "As funny as they were to listen to, I still don't see why that many people subscribed to you."

"Because I'm awesome and adorable," Gaige smirked, and Koen laughed back at her.

"While I agree with both of those points, I'm pretty sure they're not the only reasons-"

"Nah, those are definitely the only reasons," Gaige interrupted him.

"Whatever you say," Koen said with a sigh, knowing that arguing with Gaige was a lost cause. It wasn't that she always had a good point, it was more that she couldn't accept being wrong.

And with that, they both turned to look at the computer screen. Gaige sat in her chair and Koen bent over slightly and put his elbows on the desk. Gaige then continued to explain to Koen more about the ECHOnet and her ECHO-casts. She went on and on, teaching Koen everything she could think of.

Even though Koen had no idea what she was saying, he was content with just listening to her voice.

* * *

The Vault Hunters eventually made it back to Sanctuary, and they began to trudge back to the Crimson Raider HQ, desperate for some sleep. They had picked up the pace on the way back and walked through the night. It was in the early hours of the morning that they made it back to Sanctuary.

Sanctuary was covered in a dull, orange hue, and there no citizens walking the streets yet. For the Vault Hunters, it was a strange feeling, seeing the city quiet like this. It almost seemed surreal to them.

As they walked through the centre of town, Axton noticed Scooter sitting on a bench on his own, holding a wrench that looked as good as new and twisting it around in his hands. Scooter glanced up and nodded with a smile towards the Vault Hunters as they walked towards the HQ. Axton wondered why Scooter was out this early, so he decided to go and talk to him. He nodded back at the mechanic, broke away from the group and walked over to him. Scooter grinned up at Axton as he walked over, still twisting the wrench around. Axton flopped down on the bench next to Scooter and they both sat together in silence for a moment. Axton kept finding himself glancing down at the wrench in Scooter's hands and he had no idea why. Axton presumed Scooter knew what had happened, but he thought he might as well ask.

"So… I take it you about what happened then?" Axton said finally, breaking the silence.

"Yeah…" Scooter replied quietly, "Hell, I was so damn happy when I found out she was alive, and then I didn't even get to see 'er."

Axton felt very sorry for the mechanic, but there wasn't much he could have done. "Sorry about that, man…" Axton muttered, still not looking at Scooter.

"S'alright," Scooter grunted, before falling into silence. This silence lasted as long as the last one, and was just as awkward. It was Scooter who broke the silence this time.

"This was 'ers, y'know," Scooter mumbled, holding up the wrench.

Axton then recognised the wrench. It had been Gaige's for the longest time, and he had seen it either in Gaige's hands or strapped to her belt for the whole time she was here. Axton wondered how exactly Scooter ended up with it, but didn't bother asking. At least Scooter had something to remember Gaige with, even if it was just something as small as a wrench. Looking closer, Axton could see that the wrench was almost gleaming, like it had been cleaned recently. It looked like Scooter was actually taking care with this wrench, considering it had once belonged to someone he now missed.

"Yeah?" Axton asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Uh-huh," Scooter confirmed, "She gave it to me right before she left to go and kill Jack." Scooter gently tapped the wrench against his knee and looked up at the sky. "She promised me she'd come back."

Axton had nothing else to say at this point. He almost regretted bringing up the topic to Scooter. He decided he'd said enough and wanted to go back to the others at the HQ. Axton slowly got off the bench, making Scooter turn his head and look up at him.

"You goin'?" Scooter asked.

"Yeah," Axton replied, nodding his head slightly and turning around.

"Axton, wait," Scooter said, and Axton turned around again. "Is Gaige… home now, yeah?"

Axton nodded down at Scooter, a slight smile on his face. Not having anything else to say, Axton turned back around and began walking towards the HQ. He couldn't help but glance over his shoulder at Scooter, who was still sitting on the bench and looking down at the ground. That conversation with Scooter really made Axton think. It was crazy to see the impact that Gaige's very existence had on people's lives. Everyone had a soft spot for the hyperactive teenager while she was around, but now that she was gone, the people closest to her couldn't help but feel like something was missing. Guess you don't know what you have until it's gone, Axton thought.

Axton reached the front door of the HQ, pushed the metal door open and stepped inside. The Vault Hunters needed a rest after their long trek to and from the Arid Nexus. Maya and Salvador were both sprawled out on separate beds, while Zer0 was standing in the corner with his arms folded, like he always did.

Axton was absolutely wrecked after the long walk, and his legs ached with each second he stood up. He made his way over to his bed and was just about to crash down onto it when something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He looked over to see a raw hunk of Eridium sitting on Tannis' desk. Axton figured she was using it for some kind of crazy experimentation. However, the reason the piece of Eridium caught Axton's eye is because it was pulsing a bright purple colour every second.

"What the hell?" Axton muttered, just loud enough for everyone to hear, and then walked over to the piece of Eridium. He picked it up and began turning it around in his hands, inspecting every inch of it.

By this time, Maya had sat up and was now curious as to what was going on. She swung her legs off the bed and stood up. "What's up?" She asked, and walked over to Axton.

"Check out this piece of Eridium," Axton said, holding up the piece of Eridium in front of Maya.

Maya tilted her head slightly and studied the Eridium for a few seconds. She didn't know much about Eridium, mainly because she didn't trust the stuff, but still, this was weird. After a few seconds, she held her hand out to ask for the piece of the Eridium. Axton obliged and dropped the piece of Eridium into her hand.

However, the second the Eridium touched Maya's hand, the Siren's world got a whole lot more crazy. A splitting headache began to develop in her head, making her stumble backwards and clutch her head desperately. Then, her whole vision went a dark purple, similar to the colour of the Eridium she just touched. Images began to flash up inside her head. First, she saw a planet which she recognised to be Pandora. Next, she saw a pair of bright purple eyes staring straight at her. Finally, she saw the Vault, the same one that Jack had opened in order to summon the Warrior in the first place. The images stopped but her vision remained shrouded in purple and the headache did not go away.

"Whoa, whoa, Maya?!" Axton called, and reached out to try and steady the Siren. She did not make any effort to break away from him. She instead just looked straight into Axton's eyes as he held his hands on her shoulders. Axton noticed that her eyes were glowing a bright purple instead of their usual blue.

"Maya? Maya!" Axton shouted, trying to get her to snap out of it.

After a few seconds, Maya's vision faded completely. Axton caught her just in time before she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

**1 year later**

* * *

Koen walked up the driveway of Gaige's house, whistling to himself. For some reason, he was in quite a good mood as he made his way over to Gaige's house. A year had passed since Gaige and him had left Pandora, and they were still as close as ever. Things had also slightly returned to normal. Gaige was back at school, which she still hated, and Koen was living a few minutes away in a house with Marshall. Marshall, being twenty-one, had managed to get himself a good job and was getting paid quite decently. Koen had no intention of continuing on with education, considering he hadn't been to a school since he was fifteen.

As for Koen's mental state, he still saw his dad from time to time, though not as frequent as he did on Pandora. The others had all come to accept this, and thought nothing of it whenever they saw him mutter to himself or smile at nothing. Gaige had once walked in on him having a full blown conversation with nobody, and they just laughed it off together.

Koen walked straight up to the front door and pushed the handle down, hoping that it wasn't locked. It wasn't, and Koen pushed the door open and walked inside. He had been coming to the house almost every day for the past year, so Gaige and her parents had gotten used to having him around. He shut the door behind him and walked through the hallway and into the kitchen, but just as he entered the kitchen, he bumped into Alex, who was exiting the kitchen.

"Oh, hey Koen," Alex said brightly, "How you doing?"

"I'm good," Koen replied, "And you?"

"Not too bad," Alex said, "I assume you're looking for Gaige?"

"Uh, well, I guess,"

"She's in the workshop, surprisingly," Alex laughed sarcastically.

Koen laughed with him. "Right, thanks," he said, and headed for the door to the workshop.

"See you later, Koen."

Koen opened the door to the workshop and walked in to see Gaige hunching over her work bench, with all manner of tools and scrap metal strewn about the table top. Koen rolled his eyes and smiled as he closed the door behind him.

Gaige did not look up from what she was doing, but she still knew it was Koen who had walked in. A grin spread across her face as she continued to work.

Koen, knowing that Gaige would not look up from her work, slowly made his way across the room without saying a word. Once he as behind her, he reached out and put his arms around her waist. This made Gaige look down at her feet and smile. Koen leaned his head forward so it was just above Gaige's right shoulder.

"Soo…" he said quietly, "Watcha working on?"

Finally, Gaige turned around in his arms to face him, the smile still playing on her face. She looked up at him and their eyes met. She leaned forward and kissed him, before turning around to her work bench. Koen let go of her waist and stood beside her, looking at what she was working on. She had what looked sort of like an ECHO device on the centre of the bench and a whole load of parts spread out around it.

"What I'm working on," Gaige began, "Is the most genius idea ever. I can't believe I didn't think of this a year ago. Well, I didn't have the right parts then but whatever."

"So, uh, what is it?" Koen asked, trying to keep up with Gaige's vague explanation.

"I was hoping you would ask that," Gaige grinned, "Okay, so I found a way to reverse engineer this ECHO device that I got on Pandora and so was able to boost the signal waaaay beyond what it should normally be capable of."

"Wait…" Koen said, putting two and two together, "Does that mean…?"

"Uh-huh!" Gaige nodded, "If this works, I should be able to call the others back on Pandora!"

Gaige's intelligence and pure engineering genius never ceased to amaze Koen. "Woah, really? Damn, it's been so long…"

"Yeah…" Gaige sighed, "I hope everything's still okay there."

"I'm sure they're fine," Koen assured her.

Gaige bit her lip and nodded slightly. "Anyway," she said, "Let's give this thing a whirl, shall we?"

Gaige pressed a button on the side and the ECHO device powered on. It looked similar to the one she had before, except now there were pieces of metal jutting out all over it. These parts were obviously the additions and adjustments Gaige had made. Gaige then began to push buttons and type things on the ECHO device. She this for a few seconds and dropped her arms and waited. A steady beep began to emit from the device. Koen leaned in and looked at the display on the ECHO device. The screen read:

**Axton**

**Connecting…**

After a few seconds, the steady beeping stopped, indicating that the connection to the other device had been made. Gaige's face lit up and she jumped up with excitement.

"Hello?" she asked excitedly into the ECHO device.

"-lo? Gai-" Axton's voice came from the ECHO device. It looked like Gaige hadn't quite perfected the whole signal boosting process.

Gaige cursed and began messing with the ECHO device again, seeing if there was anything she could do to fix the signal.

"Gaige… -andora… -ridium… vaults... Maya…"

Those were the only words that came through the ECHO device before the call was cut off completely. Koen and Gaige both pulled their eyes away from the ECHO device and looked at each other, looks of fear and worry appearing on their faces.

**The End**

* * *

**A/N: Wut. Okay, so I decided I'm not quite done with Borderlands just yet, so yeah, sequel, I guess.**

**As well as a sequel I will also be doing a series of one-shots detailing random parts of the story, e.g What happened to Marshall etc.**

**I will also be starting up a Dead Space fanfiction soon, so check that out if you like Dead Space! :P**

**Finally, I would just like to thank every single person for reading this story. At the start, I wasn't quite sure how people would react to a sequel like this. Thankfully, most of you liked the idea of Koen and warmed to his character. So now, I guess this is now gonna be a trilogy o.O Crazy, right?**

**Anyway, I'll leave you guys with one big thank you! Also, I'll start the series of one-shots before I start the sequel, so follow me if you want to keep up to date.**

**See ya later, guys! :D**

** -Kromatick**


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